The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    William K. Wolfrum's picture

    William K. Wolfrum’s Morning: Wolfrum Alpha

    It's multi-media me day.

    Wolfrum's Word

    Can't get enough of me, William K. Wolfrum? Well, trust me, I understand. So, to help you out, I'll be on Nicole Sandler's show today at around 10:20 a.m. EST Head over to Radio or Not an give a listen.

    News/Politics

    Haiti: Death & Cholera.

    China: Death.

    India: Death.

    Rangelled: Charles Rangel is helping this country move laterally.

    Earmarks: Politicians make a stand. It's stupid and self-defeating, but it's a stand.

    TSA: Yes, they will be touching your junk and looking at you naked.

    Intermission

    Take a break and see how much damage Jenny McCarthy and other ant-vaxxers have done at Jenny McCarthy Body Count.

    Blogs

    Rising Hegemon: Rachel Maddow lets us know the real John McCain, not the guy who loves Snooki.

    Think Progress: Suddenly, Conservatives hate the idea of the U.S. citizens voting for Senators. Back-room deals for all!

    Mom in a Million: That nervy broad from Alaska.

    Intersection of Madness & Reality: Racism vs. Classism: How White Supremacy Keeps the Poor from Uniting.

    Finally

    William K. Wolfrum carnival

    It's not easy being green.

    --WKW

    Crossposted at William K. Wolfrum Chronicles

    Comments

    This video of a reporter's child being patted down was removed from youtube, but posted on myvidster.

     

     

     


    1.) I've been working out a good deal lately, why, because when I head back to Manila in Feb I don't want anyone laughing at any fat on my body.. but I will also wear a lead drape like they give you at the Dentists, so the x-rays or whatever don't hurt me, I got that idea from Art Bell...

    2) I am going to listen to that radio station this morning, so... you know, slip in a "Hi Mac", while you are talking...  I am sure you can do it, if you really, really try.

    3) .Jenny McCarthy, damn it, can I take my last name back, b/c damn it she is a lunatic and one McCarthy Lunatic was enough.

    4.) That is my favorite outfit of yours... you should wear it more often.


    +/-: Yes & No

    "Take a break and see how much damage Jenny McCarthy and other ant-vaxxers have done at Jenny McCarthy Body Count."

    +: Yes. Good catch.  A little mean spirited perhaps, but these people must be stopped.  It's like Christian Science without the theology - pretty much the definition of wacko.

    "Intersection of Madness & Reality: Racism vs. Classism: How White Supremacy Keeps the Poor from Uniting"

    -: Blech.  No thanks.

    The second comment, from William Hinds was better than the posting.

    "I asked him how he could explain the fact that while the vast majority of the worlds population are non-white people, the highest concentration of wealth is in white hands."

    You asked him to explain the roots of inequality? He probably couldn't, but Jared Diamond can. Here is the pertinent excerpt from his wiki page:

    "His third and best known popular science book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, was published in 1997. In it, Diamond seeks to explain Eurasian hegemony throughout history. Using evidence from ecology, archaeology, genetics, linguistics, and various historical case studies, he argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies do not reflect cultural or racial differences, but rather originate in environmental differences powerfully amplified by various positive feedback loops."

    Although it is interesting to look at the following as an example of cluelessness...

    This individual and I have had this conversation before. Several months ago, when we discussed what we thought was the largest problem facing the world, I spoke of racism. He spoke of classism. I actually found it quite ironic, because here we are, a Black male business owner (ostensibly "middle class"), and a white woman living below the poverty level (which would be considered "lower class"), yet HE is the one touting classism as the dominant issue of the day while I am discussing the global system of white supremacy.  This to me attests to the power of the white supremacist system. It has been refined to the point that a "victim of racism" is defending the oppressors and spewing the party line, that is all about economic classes unrelated to race.

    It should be troubling to the author that she needed to put quotation marks around "victim of racism."  If her friend doesn't see himself as a victim, then isn't it odd (and patronizing) that she wants to categorize him thusly?  While she sees the situation as proof of "the power of the white supremacist system," her own indifference to her poverty is evidence of an odd syndrome: liberals who become so preoccupied with matters of identity that class differences seem to be an acceptable result of economic competition.  To quote Alan Wolfe, "To focus so obsessively on questions of diversity, as if the ideal society were one in which both rich black kids and rich white kids could attend the same elite college, is to opt for a politics of symbolism over a politics of results."