Friday, March 4, 2016

Some (ethnic) food for thought (on racism)



My girlfriend and I went out to the movies tonight (Deadpool. Gotta see it. Unique and hilarious even if too violent.) but the part that really got me thinking was from one of the trailers. Actually it riled me up and my "this sounds like horseshit" alarm started going off in my head.

Let's watch and see what I'm overreacting to:



Okay. Is anyone else finding themselves more sensitive to xenophobia and terrorist fear-mongering - sorry: Islamic terrorist fear-mongering?  The bad guy is named Aamir Barkawi, he's got a lot of other co-conspirators from "that part of the world". One character from the movie's Wikipedia page describes him as "the youngest of three brothers whose life has been forever changed after a drone strike". The trailer shows massive, coordinated terrorist attacks within a Western City that would leave a huge chunk of the city essentially helpless. The terrorists desire to capture the U.S. President so they can kill him slowly on television for propaganda value.

Sounds a little like the creator of the film may have been inspired by ISIS and some other people from the Middle East. And really, so what? People have been making movies, shows, stories, with the 'bad guys' du jour and that's just the way it goes.

But.... to make a film that seems to push so many of our real life fear buttons at a time when nations' doors are being shut to refugees and American presidential candidates are talking about mass deportations of Muslims - well, it just seems shitty to me. We've all lambasted Donald Trump for giving a voice to the racists, for legitimizing their xenophobic fears but what about people who make movies like this? Like, isn't this like making a horror movie set in the U.S. South in the 1960's about little black women on the bus who turn out to be horrible leprous zombies or something? Probably not as captivating a movie idea.... but it probably wouldn't have helped Rosa Parks much.

I know this could begin to touch on ideas of film censorship and I'm not advocating anything remotely like that. It's not crazy to make a movie like this. Islamic terrorists probably would love to blow shit up in London and kill the President if they could. And lots of people down to spend $10 on a movie ticket want to see a movie like this. It's not crazy it's just shitty.

The question I'm left with is if Donald Trump is scumbag and a racist how do we view people who make xenophobic movies like this one? I'd guess that movies like this

Something to think about anyway.






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Thursday, March 3, 2016

Three little pleasures



I've had a very busy day and have found it difficult to sit next to a computer to write a post. I won't be finishing off part two of my blog about political scandals until tomorrow. In the meantime thought I would simply write a few words about a few little simple pleasures that I've come to appreciate. Enjoy!

1. Singing

One of the best things we can do for our soul, body, and mind is to sing, and probably sing with other people in particular. I'm lucky enough to be a part of a men's choir with many friends (that is also beginner-friendly, thankfully). We practice once a week and man does it feel like I've "hit the reset button" after every practice. I feel in a better mood... more confident and intelligent. It's really quite good.


2. Sleep

When life is busy and it's hard to get enough sleep.... it's just a pretty great thing and you know it when you don't have it. I always try to get 8 hours of sleep but I've heard up to 10 hours can be ideal. You know what doesn't help us sleep though? Our stinkin' smart phones. Those screens keep us up and rob us of precious sleep all so we can read one more article on Gawker.


3. Prayer

There's probably 10 misconceptions about prayer for every good idea about it, but I'm still solidly in the camp that. Just today I was with someone who was facing a difficult situation. We talked about it at length and... it was just a tricky situation. We decided to pray about it and... okay it's not that prayer is about getting answers or miracles, What prayer is good for is opening ourselves to connection with the world around us and, certainly (in my books), to God. It's almost like you are reminding yourself that the world is actually a little different than the things we focus on in the day to day. It's like it helps your vision, seeing problems with better imagination or seeing opportunity and love where you maybe couldn't see it before. A very good thing to do, in my opinion!


So there you have it. Three simple things that make life just a little meaningful. Til tomorrow!








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Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Whores, bitches, and fucking, Part 1 of 2



Whores. Bitches. Fucking... Without those words you just couldn't talk about about the Manitoba provincial election today.

Well... you could have. But it would have taken some effort.

For you see today a candidate for the Manitoba Liberal Party, Jamie Hall, had some old sexist tweets sent to the media and he responded to them. Want the details? Want more drama in your life? Want to have a slightly better understanding of what I'm blogging about? Then take a look below, and better yet actually read the CBC.ca article that has more details.




Twitter's great for having things taken out of context but from what the CBC article dug up it there's some fishy stuff there. I mean, those tweets above are awful. Like even the comedy part is awful let alone the needless "whore" references". The book seems weird to me, too, but then again.... I haven't read it. I'm not going to go into further detail on this since I just don't know the details but Hall appeared before reporters today and faced some tough questions. Watch:


Meanwhile, NDP's star candidate Wab Kinew's own use of sexist language drew attention as the Liberals pointed out that the pot was calling the kettle black. Apparently, while he was a rapper, around the same time as Hall's tweets, he called women "bitches" and "whores". This was when he was 30 and an admin at the U of W.

But that of course is different than Hall's tweets because.... well because Kinew changed his ways and started speaking up about MMIW and wrote down his apology in a book that he wrote before he started trying to be a politician. Well, either that or he knew it was going to be a problem and would-be politicians need to get image manicures every so often. I'm going to embed a bunch of tweets (there's like twenty) below because I think it raises some good points. The tweeter is conservative but if you comment on this please deal with the arguments not personal attacks.


















I have more thoughts on this and want to do it justice in wrapping it up so I'll finish this up tomorrow. Til then, thank you for reading (and possibly getting pissed off, since this is a contentious topic).


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And one more thing (on Trump)



He's starting to transition from someone campaigning ultra right in the primaries to someone who has an interest in winning the general election. The good news is it gives credence to the idea that he's not as stupid and racist as he's shown while appealing to Republican primary voters. The bad news is that he's a political chameleon more than willing to do those things, an establishment outsider, and up against Hillary Clinton who may be in for a hell of a fight against Trump.





"Anyone but Trump".... "Never Trump"... "Make Trump Drumpf again" (ugh....) and still he wins. Those campaigns probably help him in a way. The plot thickens.




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Monday, February 29, 2016

Beware the foul fiend



What if being disgusted by Donald Trump isn't nearly enough?

The very question has the assumption we Canadians often fall prey to, which is that what we think about American politics matters at all. It's a nice "from the sidelines" thought exercise for a people that just chose the establishment party - and chose it big time - in their last election. But hey - it's fun!

Anyways, the question at the top is spurred by a Rex Murphy take on Trump that I found quite thought-provoking and on point. In it he acknowledges that Trump is a dangerous, "easy answers" candidate but also that he is born out of a political system that has been failing for years. If you haven't watched it yet, check it out below:




From Rex Murphy's take:

"Donald Trump is a real threat to "rational, measured political action." Deploring him is the easy part. Seeing him as a clown, a dangerous one, as an opportunistic, hyper-rich, egotist, all-mouth-little-brain and easy conscience can make everyone feel good and superior.... The rise of Trump-ian style and the failure of normal politics are one."

I wonder, just what the "failure of normal politics" he describes might be? The first point Rex raises is money. Obama spent a billion dollars. Every election goes to the candidate who spends the most money. Politics are controlled by those with money. Probably the best imagining of this is by Bill Hicks, who figures politicians do what they're told. Worth a listen for the first minute or so:



But money ain't all. Politicians' lying is being seen less and less as something that's okay to let slide with a wink and wag of the finger. It's becoming revolting to pretty much everybody but especially the American demographic that supports Trump. Sure, if they see Trump as The Honesty Candidate they're allowing themselves to be duped, but Trump's straight-shooting style has resulted in some pretty cool moments of substance, be it telling a room full of potential Jewish donors he didn't think Israel always bargained in good faith to openly declaring that politicians can be bought - because he's bought them before. This door was opened by a political system that was more than willing to lie to the electorate.

One subject that likely motivates many Trump supporters is race... and I'm not sure how to address this one. Trump has been more than happy to express racist sentiments against Hispanics and Muslims and that undoubtedly wins him fans. At the same time he also does not have a Mein Kampf on his resume and - to me at least - seems to be spouting the racism or allowing the allegations to linger as a sort of dog-whistle to get and keep attention. In a wonderfully friendly and thoughtful society these actions would have ruined him. But they haven't. A large segment of the population apparently agrees with what he has said, or will at least give him a break because he's telling it like it is. Okay, it would be really crappy if he became the next Hitler but I don't think Trump is a racist (or the next Hitler for that matter). Frankly I'm surprised Trump didn't blast the KKK as only he could. Wouldn't it have won him some legit respect for the general election?

I'll need to stop it there for tonight. Basically the thought that sticks with me is that Trump didn't emerge out of nowhere. If people felt that politicians acted remotely in the interest of the people, if there was a healthy debate on issues that mattered to people - even if it's difficult, like race - then he probably isn't running away with the Republican nomination.

There are forces far more powerful than Trump at play, which is the actual reason to be afraid of his success. He's not the next fucking Hitler but the signs are there that the human soul continues to be open to one, as it always has. A people that feels embarrassed economically, disrespected or threatened globally, and ignored by their leaders will act in surprising and potentially ugly ways. And we have always allowed the state to use violence. Which is why being disgusted with Trump isn't enough. The narratives that he is responding to are what must be defeated.... and that doesn't seem easy at all.





* * * * *


PS: Extra special bonus from The Golf Channel. Trump as prez: good or bad for golf? (Actually)



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Sunday, February 28, 2016

Top 10 Twitter Tweets of the Week



I'm a pretty big fan of Twitter. It's my favorite website by far and it has a lot of good content. The internet is a wonderful place.

Speaking of good content, here's some that I've collected from other people and put together in this blogging first: a Top 10 Twitter Tweets of the Week. So here we go. In no particular order but numbered so you can tell I'm not screwing you over, trying to get away with just nine or something.

Full disclosure: apart from the animal videos and general funny .GIFs I also really dig what's called "weird twitter". It makes me laugh a lot. Naturally there will be some of those mixed in to something like this.

Anyhow, here goes!


10.


9.
8.


7.

6.


5.

4.


3.


2.


1.




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Saturday, February 27, 2016

There wasn't much of a U.S. Army at the beginning of the Civil War




As I've read about the U.S. Civil War, one of the things that struck me was how both sides were creating armies out of scratch, essentially.

It is noteworthy just how unprepared America was to fight a war... even one against itself. Sure, Americans had guns and knew how to use them, and had just eighty years before beaten off the British in their War of Independence. But they were nowhere near being any sort of military power. They distrusted standing armies, keeping only the tiniest numbers of soldiers employed - around 16,000, spread out in forts near the Indian territory. They had created the military training academy of West Point, but that produced perhaps a few dozen soldiers a year.... and those men were expected to be engineers building public works during peace time.

When the Civil War broke out that needed to change... but they were almost starting from scratch. Men were excited and wanted to be soldiers and almost immediately the States, North and South, were flooded with volunteers and were creating more regiments than they were asked for. They had to buy guns from Europe since most of the guns in America were fine for hunting but obsolete as far as military use goes. There were no officers so they were often elected from among their peers, or they were appointed by the State's political leaders. Neither of these ways of getting officers are in any way good.

Basically, I marvel that each side was able to raise an army and actually make it fight. Men and guns were two key ingredients, but required an incredible amount of materials and a system of supply to actually make it an army. Both sides raised armies of a little over 100,000 men at first. It took 600 tons of supplies each day for an army that size, plus well over 35,000 draft animals, and apparently the horses and mules had a life expectancy of only a few months. Little known fact: the need to get uniforms for all these men is when standard sizes were born - before clothing would have been homemade or otherwise tailored by hand.

Nowadays it seems ludicrous to imagine America as anything other than an armed-to-the-teeth military power.... but it definitely wasn't back then. That was a more recent development. One that wouldn't take hold until the Second World War. Even then, most soldiers were volunteers. The large, professional U.S. Army would only happen recently during the Cold War. It'll probably be a thing until soldiers get replaced with robots.
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