Friday, October 19, 2012

It's So Black & White It Takes A Colored Man To See It, I


We live in such a crazy, cult-infested, pseudo-intellectual wasteland - does anyone else see what I see? Look - same day, same website, same front page: 


Tagg Romney: Mr. White Privilege

"Tagg Romney admits he'd like to slug Obama, becoming the latest white man that thinks he can say whatever he wants."

Salon.com: 

Javier Bardem: I’ll say “whatever the hell I think is right” 

The sexy Spanish superstar and Bond villain gets involved with Africa’s most ignored human-rights crisis


It's (sometimes) a hoot to find two sides of the same coin fighting each other (or, in the case of Salon.com, fighting itself) but this is getting to be too much. I can easily find a "yoga master" trying to use the "spiritual" practice in a fight against Scientology, AND religious organizations battling Mormonism. And then there are the other fuck-ups, like the silly "belief" Whoopi Goldberg threw at Ann Romney on The View (How often have I warned you that we have to KNOW things?) along with Dinesh D'Souza's claim that - as the former-head of an evangelical college - he didn't know being engaged while still married was wrong (See what I mean?)



Even when fighting for the right things, these people are fucked-up, but fucked-up in a manner that makes it impossible for them to see it:

There are many incompetent people in the world. Dr. David A. Dunning is haunted by the fear that he might be one of them. 
Dunning, a professor of psychology at Cornell, worries about this because, according to his research, most incompetent people do not know that they are incompetent. 
On the contrary. People who do things badly, Dunning has found in studies conducted with a graduate student, Justin Kruger, are usually supremely confident of their abilities -- more confident, in fact, than people who do things well. 
"I began to think that there were probably lots of things that I was bad at, and I didn't know it," Dunning said. 
One reason that the ignorant also tend to be the blissfully self-assured, the researchers believe, is that the skills required for competence often are the same skills necessary to recognize competence. 
The incompetent, therefore, suffer doubly, they suggested in a paper appearing in the December issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 
"Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it," wrote Kruger, now an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, and Dunning. 
This deficiency in "self-monitoring skills," the researchers said, helps explain the tendency of the humor-impaired to persist in telling jokes that are not funny, of day traders to repeatedly jump into the market -- and repeatedly lose out -- and of the politically clueless to continue holding forth at dinner parties on the fine points of campaign strategy.

Remember that "odd thing" Ann Althouse claimed about herself - that to "naturally withdraw from the political debate" put her "in a position where I can see some things that typical political junkies don't see"? That was the feminist professor, lighting her political/ethical/moral incompetence in neon, and allowing us to see some other things she isn't looking at, either.


Althouse is actually very good at doing this - and does so often - like when she did a blog post about purchasing that silly "cartoon" purse, and defended herself from my charge of being immature by saying I don't love fun. It's pretty clear - even to my traumatized self - she was only telegraphing the problem of many women:

Cyndi Lauper's classic disco `Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun` was a hit, but it is now revealed that it is actually men who have more fun. 
In a new study, a third of women has admitted being 'a bit boring' after getting stuck in a rut in their work and social lives while they are they convinced that men are having a better time, the Daily mail reported. 
Many women believe men have more fun than they do, with three quarters saying it is because partners have 'less responsibility in the home' and over half believing it's down to men caring less about what others think of them. 
And 39 per cent say men are more joyful, simply because they have busier social lives, the research by bingo website Jackpotjoy revealed. 
But for some women it's their personality that prevent them from enjoying their life, as some women in the study has admitted that they are just too shy to get the party started. 
Only one in seven women claim to take the lead as an 'extrovert' or 'instigator of fun'. 
Furthermore, just five per cent of women say they make themselves laugh most, while a third say their husband or boyfriend is most likely to make them giggle.

But even if you (or I) could prove people like Ann Althouse wrong, repeatedly, none of this leads us to an answer about what to do when so many influential idiots in positions of power won't listen - mostly because (as I've stated before) in our cult-influenced society, it's now accepted that "I don't care" is the newly established answer to accurate criticism.


They're NewAgers - indoctrinated with the Maharishi's teachings to "move on" - so are only out to get their way and hurt us. Whether it's the media, journalists, bloggers - even blogs run by law professors - correcting mistakes isn't as important as marginalizing (or even destroying) critics.


The answer, of course, is to stop them - but how? The courts are one tried-and-true way:

A WOMAN who used homeopathy instead of taking her dogs to a vet has been banned from keeping animals for three years. 
When the RSPCA received a call about Susan Lambert’s dogs, the 54-year-old claimed her two German Shepherds were suffering from a skin condition because they had been burnt by the sulphuric acid that a farmer had sprayed on nearby fields. 
She was advised to seek veterinary treatment, but refused saying she would continue to use homeopathy. 
Three months later, an RSPCA officer returned to find the dogs’ conditions had rapidly deteriorated. 
Five-year-old male K had lost half his fur, while eight-year-old female Tee (pictured) was almost completely bald. 
Eventually the RSCPA and police attended Lambert’s address in Colwall to seize the animals. 
They were taken to a vet who found that parasitic mites had burrowed into the dogs’ skin and caused severe mange. 
At Hereford Magistrates’ Court last week, Gaynor Sutton, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said Lambert had been “difficult to deal with”. 
Lambert had accused the RSPCA of harassment and, when police called at her house, initially refused to let them in. 
She was been found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to animals during a hearing at Hereford Magistrates last month. 
Lambert, who now lives in the Nottingham area, did not attend that trial and did not attend court to be sentenced due to illness, but in a letter to the court said she was now too sick to continue the fight to get her dogs back. 
Since being taken in by the RSPCA, Tee has made a full recovery. She will soon be up for adoption through the animal charity. 
Sadly K was put to sleep after vets found an inoperable tumour.

I should point out the pathological denial of this dangerous woman is identical to that exhibited by the Romney's when challenged ("Mitt just simply refused to talk about it,…And Ann left the room and didn’t join us for the rest of the evening meal.") This shouldn't surprise anyone because - being of the exact same cult NewAge "alternative" medicine mindset - there's very little difference between them:

As if we don’t know by now, The Romney’s are not like most Americans, they invest in a rich man’s sport called dressage and some morally depraved horse trading. 
Specifically, Ann Romney’s horse trading experience, includes a lawsuit against her for selling a drugged up horse to a prospective buyer. The horse’s name is Super Hit and the horse was lame, she sold it to a woman named in the law suit as Catherine Norris. 
Ann Romney sold the horse according to court papers, that was lame due to “it’s coffin joint abnormality in the left front leg“.  The veterinarian term is called: exostosis that causes chronic pain and is debilitating to the horse. 
Plus, the horse had a secondary lameness injury in the right front leg, enduring physical pain for five years while being trained for dressage under the influence of steroid drugs.  It is possible, the horse had more physical injuries by the training period between 2003 and 2008, which would increase the lameness and abnormalities of the Romney horse, Super Hit. 
Mrs. Norris filed a lawsuit against Ann Romney in Ventura County, California after being sold a lame horse. Norris filed against: Jan Eberling, Amy Eberling, Amy Roberts, Ann Romney, Dr. Doug Herthel, DVM, Alamo Pintado Equine Clinic, Inc., and Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center. 
According to the expert veterinary testimony of Dr.Stephen Soule VMD who has practiced veterinary medicine for 38 years, and who has examined thousands of competition horses, his testimony included this: 
1)The horse was injected with repeated drugs and steroids in the left front joint between 2003 and 2008 for five years. 
2) Anyone with any competence would know the horse was suffering from a significant degree of abnormality and that the horse was not physically sound for the five years. 
3)The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) has information regarding the sale of horses and pre-purchase examinations. Professional guidelines include: The six D’s: Discovery, Documentation, Disclosure, Discussion and Decision and Deposition involving the sale of a horse to a buyer. 
4) On the day of examination for the sale, Super Hit was given three sedative/pain killer medications and one narcotic. 
In his 38 years of practice, Dr. Soule had never seen “a horse given so many drugs at the same time”. The buyer was not given this information in the testimony given, but showed up in a toxicology report. The drugs were give to present the horse in a different light, to mask the lameness. 
Ann Romney continued to show the horse, and the horse’s scores went down during those years, she could have retired the horse and ensured it was not in pain but then she sold it to Catherine Norris in February of 2008.

Outside of the courts, another approach is peer pressure, but that's especially difficult when so many are of the "I don't care" mindset. To utilize this, we must have some leverage, like that of being a parent:

A group of parents complained Tuesday to Encinitas Union School District trustees about a new yoga program, calling it religious indoctrination. 
District officials said there is no religion involved. Still, the school board said it would look more closely at the program and revisit it at a future meeting. 
District officials have started the program at half of the schools over the last couple of months with a $533,000 grant from the Jois Foundation, an Encinitas-based group that promotes Ashtanga Yoga. The plan is to start it at the district's other schools in January. 
Seven district parents and a lawyer spoke to the board Tuesday, saying they thought the program pushed Hinduism on children and violated religious freedom. 
"Yoga practices and poses are not merely exercise; they're religious practices," said Marsha Qualls, who has a student at Olivenhain Pioneer Elementary School, calling the techniques "a kind of prayer." 
Some of the parents said they have already asked to have their children removed from the classes. 
"I will not allow my children to be indoctrinated by this Hindu religious program," said Andy Vick, who has three daughters at Mission Estancia. "Because of this, you're forcing me to segregate my children." 
Vick said some of the children who are pulled from the yoga classes are ostracized and bullied, comparing the situation to Nazi Germany.

Nazi Germany. Have we been there before? I think we have.


So we know who these people are. Sigh. I'll have to pick this up in the next post:


Repeatedly finding myself back there, in the 21st century, depresses me profoundly,…
 

2 comments:

  1. It wasn't so much Whoopi's blatant and stupid question (which was laughably shill worthy; I hope she got paid well for it) -- which a truly intelligent person with some wit should have been able to have seen coming a mile away and deflected.
    It was the "tell" that happened when Ann (who, like Whoopi, isn't half so smart and smooth as people make her out to be, and which she has started to believe herself).

    Ann fell for the set up (a really obvious one) and let the mask slip a bit (and what it revealed was not pretty).
    Thus it really pissed me off...and pisses me off more that now many "conservatives/Republicans" are going right along with it: why of course missionary service is a benefit and service to our country; it's good for young people, and a is force of good...maybe even better than serving in our military (which has of course become infested with wrong thinking people who don't think like we do nor do exactly what we want or say).

    That's the thing that stuck with me.

    PW

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  2. And it's the same thing we see behind Ann's mask with her dealings with her horses (I will brag and say that I've been calling that one for a while, but I've got some inside baseball experience with what was going on with that...horse world's got more than a few Ann Romneys).

    They tend to treat people much the same as they treat animals (and that also came out when Annie girl fell for Whoopi's set up -- it really is a moment worthy of psychological examination...on both of them...maybe a good fisking, as that would be funny as hell).

    PW

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