Sunday, December 27, 2009

Department of Fairness

Anyone who reads my blog knows I've done a lot of criticizing the police, probably ad nauseam.

I try to be fair and present both sides. There was a news story today about an African-American family in Chicago who had a fire in their home and then found that they were burglarized while at the hospital being treated for smoke inhalation. A big-screen TV and Christmas presents had been stolen--and the single mom had worked hard to buy those presents and had recently lost her job.

A policeman (Caucasian) who was involved in investigating the case gave the family a $200 gift card to Sears, out of his own pocket, and other gifts as well.

I don't need to comment further.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Winter Wonderland

The other day this area had freezing rain. When I looked out my window, the trees and shrubs were encased in glass. Very pretty. I tried to take a picture, but it turned out to be one of those instances where, unless you are hugely talented as a photographer, it's very hard for the camera to capture what the eye sees.

Once the roads were no longer icy, I went out in my car. Stop signs and street signs had combs of little icicles hanging from them.

Today it's been snowing. I noticed that there were little footprints on my front porch. I opened the door and saw that an animal's paw prints went up the steps and onto the porch. I guess a furry visitor, probably a canine one, approached my front door but couldn't reach the doorbell.

Well, as I like to say, all this winter weather is very pretty; but cars and winter don't mix very well. I think I could live happily enough somewhere where it never snows. On the other hand, many people say they like the change of the seasons, and that it's boring and monotonous if the weather is always the same. I do have to say, once summer comes to Chicago, we value it and try to take advantage of it more than we would if we had it all year 'round.

Copyright © 2009 by Richard Stein

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Is the Right, Right?

Wall Street, bankers, insurance agents, doctors are just among the many American institutions that people used to be able to trust, but are not able to anymore. (I can't add politicians because there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that mistrust of politicians goes way, way back.) I hate to agree with the Right in any sense, but when they argue that ethics and morality have declined, I think I agree. But of course they include homosexuality (and marital infidelity and abortion) in with the evidence of moral decline, and of course there they and I would part company. They seem to be assured that anything having to do with sex is evil. One time I saw on TV a woman from a Phyllis Schlafly, Right-type organization debating a woman from the American Library Association on book censorship. The Right-wing lady was wearing a dress buttoned up to the neck, and I thought that said a great deal.

Proportion of Single Black Women: My Take

ABC News NightLine last night ran a very interesting news story. It said that young black women have a harder time finding a marriage partner than single white women in the same age range. In fact, they said that 54% of black women never marry, as compared to 21% of white women.

Demographics were given as a reason. You take away the black men who are unemployed, those who are incarcerated, etc., and there are comparatively few left. The black women interviewed for the show understandably want to find a black male with income and social class comparable to their own, so they certainly are not going to consider those men among the prison population or the unemployed or the menially employed.

Steve Harvey, comedian turned counselor, weighed in and mentioned that black men just have less responsibility toward their female partners and less inclination to marry.

I think there is another reason that nobody dares to discuss. The way I see it is this: More black women than black men have good jobs, and thus can be in the middle class. (In places I have worked, I have seen black women well represented and in good positions; but if there were in fact any black men, they were likely to have jobs like janitor.) Maybe this suggests that more black women than men attain college educations and it would be interesting to see if statistics would bear this out. I think there is another reason, though. I think black women face less discrimination in the workplace. (And now comes the really unpopular thing that nobody is willing to admit.) This is because the white race has always been afraid of blacks, and that fear is directed much more toward black males than black females, who are perceived as much less threatening.

If a white person is walking on the street, or waiting for the el, late at night, is s/he going to be afraid if there is no one about but a black female? or if there is no one about but a black male?

Yes, these are the stereotypes in the minds of white people. Racism (which is pretty much equivalent to stereotypes) does exist. We all believe, but often won't admit, that there is a basis in fact for our stereotypes. I'm not going to weigh in on that question; let the reader contemplate it for himself.

Copyright © 2009 by Richard Stein

Cops Yet Again

I hope the subject is not getting tiresome to my readers, but I'm continuing to beat the drum about cops who abuse their office and/or commit crimes.

The latest: A policeman from a far suburb of Chicago was driving drunk in the Chicago area, hit another car, and killed a 29-year-old Vietnamese immigrant who held two jobs, went to college, and tried to hold his family together. The policeman refused a breathalyzer test at the scene but once he arrived at the hospital (he was injured but not critically), his blood alcohol was nearly three times the legal limit.

In another case, a 24-year-old man, again in the Chicago suburbs, was wielding an axe--in the streets, I believe. When he was ordered to drop the axe—and the man may have been an immigrant and may not have understood English—he was shot by a policeman. Four times. Fatally.

A friend or relative of the deceased man asked why he had to be shot fatally rather than, say, tasered. The police chief said that, since the axe was a lethal weapon, it was appropriate to respond with lethal force. I guess even to "respond" quadruply is considered appropriate.

In another instance, this one receiving national attention, a group of people in Washington, DC, were having a snowball fight—legally and harmlessly. One snowball happened to hit a Hummer, and the Hummer happened to belong to a police detective. The detective drew his gun on the snowball throwers. I guess everyone should know that you just don't mess with a dude's Hummer.

Copyright © 2009 by Richard Stein

Monday, December 14, 2009

How About These Products, Mr. Woods?

Tonight (12/14), ABC News NightLine, starting from the news item that Tiger Woods has lost some of his gigs as a "product endorser," examined the issue of whether he—and other athletes who have been somehow tainted by scandal—should continue as product endorsers.

Well, I think that Tiger emphatically should go on endorsing products. Maybe just a different set of products.

How about these?

Victoria's Secret ("I like all my ladies to wear Victoria's Secret lingerie!")
Lover's Lane (sex shops)
condoms
K-Y
mattresses

Copyright (c) 2009 by Richard Stein

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Is America Headed for Fascism?

Newsweek magazine had a cover headline, when Obama got elected, "Now we are all socialists." I think that, quite the opposite, America may be headed toward Fascism.

I was recently watching a TV interview (I think it was Bill Moyers on PBS) with a historian named Howard Zinn. This guy Zinn is the author of A People's History of the United States and A People's History of American Empire. He was talking about populist movements, and made the point that populist movements on the right lead to Fascism. This happens whenever people feel they have no control over the situation they find themselves in. This of course reminds one of the circumstances of Hitler's rise to power. It is very scary to think that this might be what lies around the corner for America.

Remember what I wrote about the "teabaggers." (Okay, they don't like that label because the word has a slang sexual meaning. So what do they want to be called, Tea Partiers?) There is a lot of opposition to Obama, some maybe originating in people's own, genuinely home-grown ideas (such as racism) and some, as I believe, stirred up, manipulated, and exploited by power interests (political, corporate, etc.) for their own ends.

Also, here is a quote from a news item.

Militia groups have seen a resurgence in popularity since Barack Obama was elected president, says Heidi Beirich, director of research for the Southern Poverty Law Center. "It's like they came out of nowhere with the election of Obama." she says.

Her group has found 50 new militias in 18 months. "We added a group yesterday with 60 new chapters."

This is scary, too; very, very scary.

It suggests that the election of Obama has energized these groups. At a minimum, I think that the next presidential election is going to move the country to the Right—way Right. But maybe worse, consider that these militias stockpile weapons and train in military tactics. (Some of their members have had the benefit of training by the US military services.) They want to get enough power to control the US and impose their ideas on the rest of us. Of course that is the opposite of democracy. If these groups—many of which are neo-Nazi and thus racist, anti-Semitic, anti-gay, and God knows what all else—ever gain enough power, they are simply going to shoot any and all of those whom they don't like.

As I said, scary. Very, very scary.

Copyright © 2009 by Richard Stein

What Is "True Love"?

In one of those inexplicable moments of strange memory or recall that we older folks start to get used to, a bit of a song came into my mind, with the phrase "true love." And that got me to thinking about the term.

It would seem that the term true love implies that there are different degrees of love, only one of which is "true" love. And all other kinds of love are lesser forms of love.

What is true love, and how do we know it? And what of all those degrees or varieties of love which are somehow not "true"?

How do we define or recognize "true love" and distinguish it from those other, presumably lesser (or counterfeit?) forms of love? It might be facile to say that any person who cheats on his/her spouse is not "truly" in love with the spouse.

But maybe the term (and concept) "true love" holds before us a true but unattainable, illusory ideal. I have read that many people enter into marriage with an unrealistic and highly romantic ideal, which no actual marriage is going to be able to live up to. This is not healthy, and might be a reason for our high rate of divorce.

Maybe we all need to see if we can be content with some variety of love which is not that highest, and maybe illusory, "true love."

Copyright © 2009 by Richard Stein

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Department of Names for Things

Just in case my brain should become idle for a moment, I've turned it to thinking up names for products that don't exist, but maybe should.

Drugs for E.D.: Bonera, Cocosterone, Leteride
Drugs for Alzheimer's: Cenyla
Drug for macular degeneration: Cancya
Store that sells blenders: Whirl-Mart
Pet shampoo: ShamPoodle
Cat food: Kitten Kaboodle

Copyright (c) 2009 by Richard Stein

Mr. Obama and Afghanistan

I am very disappointed in President Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. He has promised to get us out of Afghanistan. I hate to have to tell him, but sending in more troops is the opposite of pulling out.

As I have pointed out before, it greatly saddens me to see the parallels with the Vietnam War. Then the generals, and the Commander-in-Chief, kept saying, "If we just send in x thousands more troops, we will win this war." And this happened I-don't-know-how-many times, until over 56,000 American soldiers had been killed.

In Afghanistan as in Vietnam, we are propping up a corrupt government that does not have the backing of its citizenry.

Just as in Vietnam, the game plan was supposed to be that we would help to train that country's own soldiers so that they would be able to defend their own country—and then we could pull out.

In case anybody has forgotten—and can you remember, Mr. Obama?—it didn't work in Vietnam.

Copyright © 2009 by Richard Stein