March 2011
“It is not right to punish a whole group because of the supposed actions of a few. You in this room could have a pretty rough time if that was the case. It is not right to stigmatize and dehumanize women living the hard life of trying to raise children while living 60% below the poverty level. It is not right to use racist, bumper-sticker hate to inflict human misery for political gain.”
—
Angel Buechner of the Welfare Rights Committee, testifying in front of the Minnesota House Health and Human Services Reform Committee on House File 171.
House File 171 would make it so that families on MFIP could not have their cash grants in cash or put into a checking account. Rather, they could only use a state-issued debit card at special terminals in certain businesses that are set up to accept the card. The bill also calls for not allowing the debit card to be used across state lines.
Sick: Republican Lawmaker Likens 11 Yr Old Rape Victim to a "21 Yr Old Prostitute" →
alternet.org
Displaying the standard Republican concern for women and children, Florida GOP lawmaker Kathleen Passidomo had this to say about a recently publicized case in which an 11 year old girl was allegedly brutally gang raped:
There was an article about an 11 year old girl who was gangraped in Texas by 18 young men because she was dressed up like a 21-year-old prostitute. And her parents let her attend school like that. And I think it’s incumbent upon us to create some areas where students can be safe in school and show up in proper attire so what happened in Texas doesn’t happen to our students.
Passidomo made her comments during a subcommittee hearing about the vitally important issue of banning saggy pants in schools.
Disgusting that anyone can say that, much less a woman with daughters.
“If [Alexandra Wallace] received a death threat, I find that as deplorable as her original YouTube video. If this is the response of students on campus, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
—
Robert Naples, UCLA associate vice chancellor and dean of students
Wanna know what I find as deplorable as her original video? This motherfucker, that’s what. There is “a lot of work to do” because someone threatened this girl? Not because she felt justified in her incredibly arrogant racist rant, not because she was obviously so secure in those beliefs that she put them on YOUTUBE, but because someone might have (note the “if”) threatened her? Of course death threats - IF they happened - are unacceptable, but to insinuate that’s where the “work” starts is infuriating and a big ol’ festering example of why the planet had to deal with Alexandra Wallace’s horseshit in the first place.
(via thetart)
Seconded.
(via drinkthe-koolaid)
I third that.
The More Secure You Feel, the Less You Value Your Stuff →
sciencedaily.com
People who feel more secure in receiving love and acceptance from others place less monetary value on their possessions, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire. The research was conducted by Edward Lemay, assistant professor of psychology at UNH, and colleagues at Yale University.
Lemay and his colleagues found that people who had heightened feelings of interpersonal security — a sense of being loved and accepted by others — placed a lower monetary value on their possession than people who did not.
So, the Koch bros. weren’t loved enough?
Glenn Beck: Japan earthquake could be 'message' from God to follow the Ten Commandments →
nydailynews.com
Glenn Beck says Japan’s earthquake might be a “message” from God.
“We can’t see the connections here,” he said on his show Monday. “I’m not saying God is causing earthquakes - well I’m not not saying that either!”
“What God does is God’s business,” Beck continued. “But I’ll tell you this…there’s a message being sent. And that is, ‘Hey you know that stuff we’re doing? Not really working out real well. Maybe we should stop doing some of it.’ I’m just saying.”
Beck continued trying to make a connection between human behavior and the natural disasters that have wreaked havoc in Japan, even casually mentioning “radical Islam” before revealing what he called “the answer.”
“The answer is, buckle up!” he said. “Because it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
In light of the disasters that have devastated Japan, the Fox host stressed people should follow the biblical Ten Commandments, or what he referred to as “10 rules of thumb.”
“What do you say we start doing those things?” he asked. “Because the things we are doing really suck. And they’re not getting better.”
Shut the fuck up. Now.
Concerning the "UCLA Girl", I completely agree with her. I mean I'm 100% Filipino, which you know of course is of the Asian race, and I didn't find this video the least bit offensive or racist. From the asian side, I understand how that would annoy people, and when I'm out with my asian relatives, I get embarrassed when they start acting like that. Now not all asians are like that, and she pointed it out, saying that she has asian friends, and that they in no way should take offense to this. But it's not just the asian groups, it's just that we're more prone to do these things, because of our broken culture. We try so desperately to fit in, sometimes we don't understand the limits and try to act more american than most americans. But in lo, I agree with her completely.
Thanks for a differing perspective on this. I’ve talked to a couple of my friends who are Asian and one of them said the same thing. However, two others said it was offensive. So I haven’t had many people offer their opinions to me on her video.
I think your perspective would matter for sure. I think she made the mistake of stereotyping a group of people based on very limited experience, and to me, that’s still wrong. However, I am not Asian, nor Asian-American, and I’m not sure how my view would change if I were.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I appreciate you offering your perspective.
"god is good" video is not serious. look at her other videos. good performance art, though.
best,
jim
She’s so sincere it’s creepy. Well, thank Jeebus she’s not serious, and that’ll teach me to watch this shit at 2am. Thanks for letting me know!
-Meg
Viral YouTube video called "repugnant" by UCLA administration →
dailybruin.com
Good, I’m glad. || Link submitted by mblove
"UCLA Girl"...
Look at the comments. You're fueling the hate train to hell. She got a bit too mad and exploded. We all do this at some point in our lives and we wind up completely ignoring our better judgment for just a second and say the wrong stuff.
And look at the comments. "Skank"... "Tits or GTFO"... "Whore"... "Trash"... What makes you and everyone else any better? You're making the masses react, and they sure as hell are reacting in terrible, destructive ways.
Honestly, are you doing this for the views? It's her video, your mirroring it is just making things worse. There any hope left for humanity?
Cheers.
She’s fueling her own hate train by putting this racist piece of garbage up publicly. Alexandra didn’t seem too mad to me actually. In fact, she seems to have made peace with her racism.
I’m not the commenter. I didn’t post it on YouTube. I’m not mirroring anything but public content she distributed. The internet is forever.
Sure, we’ve all flown off the handle. But we don’t all get dressed up, make-up on, and post a rant for the rest of the world to see. Most of us call a friend or write a sad poem in our journal and move on instead of stereotyping a whole region’s worth of people.
I’m not making the masses react. She is making the masses react, and they should. However, comments like what you’re referencing are not constructive.
I’m not doing this for the views. I’m not even sure how I’d get views off this when I am one of many who’ve posted this. Plenty beat me to it. I’m doing this to spotlight the disgustingly racist rant of Alexandra Wallace in which she mocks people for having family and flippantly dismisses them for checking in on loved ones after the tsunami and earthquakes in Japan.
She didn’t ignore her better judgment for “just a second.” It probably took her a little bit to make it. She looks like she may have even gotten a little dolled up for the occasion. It takes at least 10 minutes to upload a video. In those 10 minutes, she could have thought about what she said. She could have clicked “cancel upload”. After she made it, she could have said, “Okay, I feel better” and not posted it. She obviously knew what she was saying was offensive, or else she wouldn’t have qualified her comments with the statements about how she didn’t want to offend *her* Asian friends, just some Asians in the library.
What makes me better than that is that I don’t post racist rants stereotyping a whole group of people based on anecdotal experience and limited encounters. I don’t make light of a tragedy where thousands have died because someone concerned may have interrupted my deep study.
To answer your last question, yeah, there’s a bit more hope for humanity when people like Ms. Wallace learn responsible use of a webcam.
Is UCLA going to do anything about Alexandra Wallace's rant about Asian? You see, there are a lot of violent incidents caused by people like her, VA Tech, the kid in FL, the other day in the news a 15 y/o student poured acid to her classmate over an older guy. What's UCLA's stand on this?
I have not seen anything about a response. The problem with responding to it is that if she made this video on her own, there’s usually little a school could do without violating the first amendment. However, if UCLA has some kind of regulation against racism, etc, then she may have violated it.
I imagine the school disapproves, but there’s little they can do about it right now. It”ll be interesting to see if there’s anything that will come out of it.
Michigan Republicans seek power to dis-incorporate whole cities, dismiss elected officials →
rawstory.com
Holy shit…
Republicans in Michigan have come up with a revolutionary solution to the state’s growing budget crisis: claim the right to auction off entire municipal entities, like cities, counties, school districts and water systems.
In a new bill being pushed by Governor Rick Snyder (R), the governor, or a company hired by the governor, would have the power to declare municipal entities insolvent. Amid the fiscal emergency, the governor or the governor’s agent would then be empowered to appoint an emergency manager to oversee all financial matters.
Under language in the bill, that individual would be able to cancel any and all contracts — including collective bargaining rights for unions — and outright dis-incorporate whole cities, dismissing lawfully elected officials in the process.
