Not to Worry, Uncle Ken

Remember the joke that was going around Gage Park for awhile? 

"The definition of "nomad" is an even tempered Italian:  I'm a nomad."

Well, I'm a nomad too.  Just because we disagree on some issues.....okay, almost all issues, doesn't mean that we don't like each other.  There are lots of sites out there where we could find people who believe the same as we do.  But what fun is that?  The fact that we are still communicating after all these years proves that we must like it.   

I have gotten along with individuals of different races in my life, "individuals" being the operative word here, it's the groups that I have a problem with.  When I see a group that appears to be mobilized against me, my first instinct is to join a group that is mobilized against them.  Later in life, I learned how to resist that impulse because, more often than not, the counter group comes with baggage that I would rather not carry.  

It's too hot to work outside today, so I took the time to look up the CCC.  Although the program was disbanded when World War II eliminated the Depression era unemployment problem, it never really went away.  Turns out there are lots of similar programs still in operation today, only on a smaller scale.  I still think it's a good idea to do something that with all those asylum seekers.  Most of them came here looking for work, and now they are cooling their heels in detention camps with nothing productive to do.  No good can come of that. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps

hawks and doves

Nobody talks much about hawks and doves these days.  It was a big thing during the Vietnam war, the hawks being for continuing the war with more vigor, the doves being for bringing the boys home.  But I don't want to start that argument again, because even though it was long ago, and to most of those born after it, it is a curious relic of the past,  But for those of us who were around when it seems almost everybody, especially those of us who were of our age, was a hawk or a dove it is now almost fifty years in the past and we go for weeks without thinking about it, but should the subject come up, Beagles, the hawk, and Uncle Ken, the dove, would be at each other't throats like we were both 21 again. 

Well it would be nice to be 21 again, but I don't want to go there today, I just want to use the terms hawks and doves to apply to oh, the categories of racism I outlined in my last post, specifically the categories III and V, the hawks being category III, and the doves being category V.  Among white people there are both categories, and likewise among blacks  There is a curious affinity between the  hawks of both races.  The hawks of both sides refer to the hawks of the other side to justify their hawkishness, and likewise the doves of both sides refer to the doves of the other side to justify their dovishness.  The hawks like to think that most the other side are hawks so there is not much sense in trying too hard to get along with them, they will just use that against us.  The doves like to think that most of the other side are doves too, so it only makes sense to get along with them better.

Well that's all I have to say on that.  It may seem like an obvious point, but I just thought it was worth bringing up.  I'm sick and tired of me and Beagles going after each other ratatat.  Oh I feel good when I tear into his (obviously false) rantings, and likewise I assume he does the same, but afterwards I am a little embarrassed at the ill will, and it seems like a big waste of time because nothing has been accomplished.

Well maybe it's the heat, at first the heat makes a body cranky, but then as the heat dome settles in a body becomes weary and does not want to fight about anything.

Well happy Friday dawgs, see you Monday when the heat dome has passed on to the east.

Racialism Defined

Racialism is the belief that the human species is naturally divided into races, that are ostensibly distinct biological categories. Most dictionaries define the term racialism as synonymous with racism.^[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racialism

I don't believe I've ever heard the term before myself, so I looked it up.  I thought I knew what racism was, but I looked that up too because the distinction between racism and racialism was not clear to me.  I am having trouble copying and pasting the definition of "racism" but, if you click on the highlighted word in the above text, it will take you to it.

As near as I can tell, the difference between racialism and racism is that racialism recognizes the existence of different races, while racism also involves the belief that one race is superior to another race.  By using both terms in the same sentence, Andrew C. McCarthy seems to be saying that both beliefs  "should be increasingly irrelevant in a pluralistic society".  Sounds good to me, now all we've got to do is convince everybody else of all races.  Until we do, I'm staying in Category III.

Meanwhile, I've got an idea about what to do with all those asylum seekers who are waiting for their hearings to come up.  Instead of keeping them in detention camps, which can't be built fast enough, organize them along the lines of the old Civilian Conservation Corps.  Their first project can be to build their own camps or barracks, then send them out to do stuff like planting trees and establishing firebreaks in the mountains.  I'm not talking about chain gang labor, I'm talking about a reasonable amount of productive work for which they will be paid a fair wage, just like the old CCC.  Those who are not suitable for field work can be employed as cooks and other support personnel.  The CCC was probably the least controversial of the New Deal projects, I've never heard anybody say anything negative about it.  Makes me wonder why it was ever discontinued.  I'll have to look that up one of these days.

sick and tired of being sick and tired

You know what I'm tired of, not only tired, sick and tired of?  It's hearing people tell me that they are tired of something.  So what?  Get over it.  Why should anybody care what you are tired of?  I'm tired of Trump's ignorant rants, and I'm tired of hearing people talk about Game of Thrones like it is the new Shakespeare, and I'm tired of various aches and pains that come with the aging body.  So what?  Oh I guess I complain about Trump's rantings, but I think I tell why. I don't whine that I'm tired of it, like everybody ought to stop and say oh look, Uncle Ken is tired of this or that, maybe we should stop doing it.  Oh I know it's just a figure of speech, but it's a stupid one.  We ought to just shitcan it and find a more meaningful figure of speech.  Why?  Because I am sick and tired of it.

Well I spent maybe an hour probing into what is racism, and the next very morning, like a cat bringing in a dead mouse, Beagles drags in this quite from some guy he sees as his spokesman and all\of a sudden there is this new word racialist.  What the hell is a racialist?  Not a racist clearly because the esteemed McCarthy speaks of racists and racialists.  Beagles dragged this dead mouse into the ivied halls so I think it is incumbent on him to supply a definition of the word, because I am sick and tired of doing all the legwork for the Institute.

But the trope-troubled McCarthy does illustrate that point of mine that my ilk errs when it spreads the charge of racism too broadly.  See, now we've made him sick and tired of us, though I expect that he'd be sick and tired of us even if we didn't speak a word. 

I had Beagles pegged as a IV, but I see that he claims III.  According to that theory the races can never get along because one will always be trying to top the other.  It is the III's of both races that keep the races at each other's throats and I, for one, am sick of all the trouble they cause.

Beagles's voting agenda, as he succinctly expressed it a few posts ago, is that he will always vote for the republicans because the dems want to take Old Betsy from him, and nothing can ever change his mind about it, so it's not like there is much to discuss there.


I'm a bit cranky today because the dreaded heat dome is just six hours away, and even though it has not yet arrived I am sick of it, sick and tired, fucking sick and tired, fucking sick and fucking tired.

What He Said

"Like many Americans, I am tired of being lectured about racism by racists and racialists, individuals whose full-field explanation for all life’s issues is this matter of genetic happenstance that should be increasingly irrelevant in a pluralistic society." - Andrew C. McCarthy - from yesterday's link.

"Call me anything you want, just don't call me late for chow." - old army saying

" I ain't sayin' I'm no better than anybody else, but I'll be damned if I ain't just as good." - From the play "Oklahoma!" by Rodgers and Hammerstein

Uncle Ken's Category III sounds about right for me.  It's not always about race, though.  I'm just as much against Democrats as I am against Blacks or Hispanics, and Hispanic isn't a race anyway, it's a nationality.  Truth be known, I don't like most White people all that much either, and there are even some Republicans who disappoint me.  I have been in various groups in my life, but not for a long time now.  Just because I am not a card carrying member doesn't mean I can't vote for them, and I will anytime I think their agenda is closer to mine than the other guy's agenda.  

racism defined

I don't believe that all opinions are equal.  Some are more informed and thought out than others.  I think I am much better than Beagles at backing up my citations.  When I am writing something, I'll think that I know that for instannce, 79 percent of asylum seekers return for their court dates, but I am not sure so I am off to the google machine or the wiki mobile to find out if that is correct before I put it in my post, and I do that about three times for every one I put up.  If Beagles were willing to do the legwork of going through past posts he would discover I cite my sources  way more often than he does.

Beagles puts in a relevant link here though.  It is from the National Review, which is pretty conservative, but not Trumpist.  Beagles correctly notes that I do point out when one of his links comes from a right-wing source, but I believe he is mistaken when says I dismiss them, I think I go on to consider the merits of the argument regardless of the source, to the extent that I don't I am in the wrong.

Is Trump racist?  I think so, but what does the term mean?  It's like socialism, it means whatever the person using it wants it to mean.  Both terms are like tar sticks.  you use them to tar your opponents.  Rather than make a reasoned argument you just accuse them of racism or socialism and consider that thusly you have refuted them.

I think it's pretty evident that liberals toss the term around a lot more than conservatives, and I want to go on record that I think we do it too much.  The more conservative you are the fewer people you think are racists, when you get close to the edge, the KKKs and the Aryan Brothers, I think neither one of them consider themselves racists.

I want to set up a series of categories and have a discussion of who we could call racists.

I - The sons of the old south, the confederacy, Black people are not as good as white people, not as smart, not as moral, and therefore they deserve to be slaves.  I think everybody would agree that those guys were racists.

II - The social Darwinists who believe like the sons of the old south that black people are not as good as white people, but don't believe in slavery,  Is it racist just to think that the races are unequal?  I think so.

III - The identity politickers who say maybe the races are equal, but I am a white man (or a black man), and I am going to stick up for my people.  I know the other race is going to stick up for their people so it is only just that I stick up for mine.  I still call this racist because you are favoring one race over the other.

IV - The everything is ok now guys who say ok, there used to be a lot of racism around but we've grown we've overcome all that, so there's no reason to pass a bunch of anti-discrimination bills, or to help out the poor who are mostly black.  I think these people are wrong, but I don't think I would call them racist.  It's just too strong a charge and it alienates people and I think my ilk tosses this charge around way too much.

V - People like me, who think we are all equal, and should all love each other, well get along anyway, but I think redresses of the past should be addressed.  Because black people in the past, and even in the present day have a harder climb we ought to give them a hand.

These categories are kind of arbitrary, but the morning grows late.  Where do the dawgs stand on this.  And do either of you guys think there is some kind of definition of racism in a sentence or two? 

I'm Not Complaining

I'm not complaining about school, I'm just glad that I don't have to go there anymore.  I served my time, paid my debt to society, and now I'm done with that.  I could have re-enlisted for another hitch, but I chose not to because, like Ann Landers used to say, "The sample was ample."  I do look stuff up from time to time, and I cite sources when I remember them, but I don't feel obligated to back up everything I say.  Much of what we say here is opinion anyway, and I figure that my opinion is as good as anybody else's.  When I do cite a source, Uncle Ken frequently refuses to read it or dismisses it as Trumpist propaganda.  Come to think of it, I don't think that Uncle Ken is any better about citing sources than I am, but I don't have any hard data to back that up.  Somebody should do a study about that.

Speaking of opinions, here's one I just came across.  Couldn't have said it better myself.

https://a.msn.com/r/2/AAEpBOX?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare