"Human beings, be they idealists or the psychologically vulnerable, have displayed an inexhaustible capacity for credulity when it comes to charlatans posing as political or religious messiahs."

"Black Americans, don't be surprised if someone slyly offers you 'niggerheads' for dessert: They're racist as all get-out in France. They just won't admit it - even to themselves - just ask the Jews.

But, of course, they demand that Americans must have a black president, while France doesn't have a black anything. They don't even like printing the word 'black' in newspapers. Hell, I once went to the equivalent of a Home Depot in France and they didn't even have black paint!" 

- TMR, July 1, 2009

"In a country that takes pride and expends considerable energy to ensure that the principle of "egalite" (equality) is strictly adhered to, there are some racial references practically embedded in the language and culture here.

"Negre" is the N-word in France, and it is used in ways that would raise eyebrows elsewhere. A "negre," for example, is a ghostwriter in French, "tete de negre" is the name for a chocolate pastry, and "petit negre" is the way one refers to poor or pidgin French."

- CNN, November 29, 2013

 

This is probably the most important link, I've put up on race, today:

"Now more than ever I will engage in cross-racial relationships with an unapologetic and hopefully compassionate commitment to calling out the ways that people fail to see the complexity and reality of being black in America,…"

As usual, TMR's ahead of the curve:

And still burning rubber while doing it,...

 

Black women have been pretty damned equal - and loved for it - all along. Feminism is weird - not to mention, someone else's beef:

Y'all should watch 12 Years A Slave, and ask yourselves, "Who's been oppressing who, again?"

 

I guess, it could go without saying, I am NOT a social scientist:

"It doesn’t take a social scientist to see that a blizzard of how-to books on “positivity” suggests its lack in everyday life. Behind the facade of smiley-faced optimism, American culture seems awash in a pervasive sadness,...."

But being able to see past the facade ain't exactly a party either,...

 ADDED - Forgot I had it waiting:

 

Having suffered under this weight for so long, as a black American, there's something about the truth, and boots - and running around the world - that seems relevant to my predicament. Never you mind. I wrote a blog about it, and it goes a little something like this:

"France Remains Most Racist Country In Western Europe"

Cue the accordion music - for the always-enamoured American press:

Unlike TMR, they've told us everything,...

 

If TMR knows your political ideas, and still tells you to "pound sand," you might want to check how far it's shifted beneath your feet:

"Christie said breathless 2016 speculation made him 'feel badly' for President Barack Obama, who famously crossed party lines to join Christie in 2012 for a tour of the storm-ravaged New Jersey shoreline. 'He just won [reelection] a year ago, and as we shove him out the door, we minimize his ability to be an effective executive,' Christie said."

I guarantee you, it could be a great deal,...

 

Now, I ask you, serious business:

 "Is Gluten the Cause of Your Health Problems?" 

Or is it something else?

"Your choices are limited by who you are."

I love the ring of that phrase - and it's ring of truth - like a kick in the gut. So, since that seems to be the case (and since I'm *kinda safe* for the moment) excuse me as I jump in the fray, because culture is wailing on politics with a vengeance:

McAllister, running as an outsider, lined up an endorsement from "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson, the patriarch in the popular reality show, and cast member Willie Robertson appeared in a commercial for the candidate. The program is shot in the northeast part of Louisiana that McAllister will represent.

Unlike McAllister, Riser had the backing of a number of prominent Republicans including U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Riser agreed with the governor's stance to reject the Medicaid expansion.

…The funeral home owner was the contest's early favorite with backing from the conservative Tea Party of Louisiana and the national group FreedomWorks, which is aligned with the Tea Party movement.

The Right is so out of sync now, it's pitiful. Everyday is the day before the last election - and then the "unexpected" happens. Again. GlennBoy's even already back to warning Republicans not to get cocky. Why? What are they going to do? Keep coming on like The Party That Doesn't Give A Shit? We've seen that. "Maybe get a black point-man."

"Man Has Magnetic Powers, Can Make Objects Stick To Body"

New Headline:

You Are A Fucking Idiot, Go Back To School - Retake Science

Unoriginal second thought - do we even need another metal attracting guy? Bending spoons? Wow.

Do something useful.

 Now here's a something that gets my attention:

"Since Christianity has produced a lot of dysfunctional people, suicides will more than likely increase among Christians in the very near future."

So it's a self-correcting system - cool. Kinda like this:

"Lady Gaga's 'ARTPOP' Flop Expected to Lose Label Reported $25M in Marketing Costs"

Word is people will be fired - at Christmas. Perfect. Contrast and compare with the netherworld:

 "Michael Jackson Tops List of Highest-Earning Dead Celebrities of 2013"

He's dead, and still a better entertainer than we've got now. What a wasteland. No, really, a wasteland. And nobody knows the difference, either, so far as I can tell. Everything just slips by.

"The Jamaican Maroons were runaway slaves who fought the British during the 18th century. When the British invaded Jamaica in 1655 the Spanish colonists fled leaving a large number of Africans who they had enslaved."

I'm beginning to think they're all a little insane. 

But probably not without good reason,...

What else is TMR supposed to do with this?

"The single greatest task for conservatives is to fix their own leadership problems. In so doing they must avoid the single greatest mistake Obama has made, which is to rely on fantasy. The facts, however unpalatable. The truth, no matter how bitter.”

 So they're back to slapping themselves in the face - like it's instinct - admitting they can't stay rooted in reality.

"Fully considered, it becomes obvious that Rand’s views congeal into a fatally flawed philosophy. Even when stripped of its atheistic elements, Objectivism’s focus on radical individualism cuts it off from reality and causes it to wither under scrutiny. And as much as we might admire Rand’s deep-rooted hatred of collectivism, her philosophy is still just another utopian dream, a transvalued Marxism.

Ultimately, Rand’s egoism is irreconcilable with both Christianity and capitalism. In fact, since the system fails to have any true explanatory value, it’s difficult to find any reason to adopt Objectivism at all. Fortunately, we don’t have to buy into Rand’s philosophical errors in order to appreciate her fiction. We just have to keep in mind that instead of reading a 'novel of ideas', we are reading a work of fantasy."

 But they still can't admit they're doing it again. And this time, because they've lied to everybody - including themselves - so many times before.

"Rob Ford drug use leaves Conservatives uneasy, MP suggests

Immigration Minister Chris Alexander says federal Conservatives 'not fans' of hard drug users"

 Spoiler Alert: 

I think the betrayal of Benghazi line is done now.

"The French position on race is that you can come from anywhere and become French, as long as you speak French, adopt French customs, and act French.

That’s great, but they have a hard time with difference, people who maintain customs, dress, or religion that makes them appear different. And, in the case of black people, we are conspicuously different no matter how French we feel."

 "The facts, however unpalatable. The truth, no matter how bitter” is, conservatives have reduced the enterprise of governing to soap opera, displaying all the signs of bad actors (pun intended) who - like the French - are fun to watch, but still deserving of contempt and comeuppance.

  “People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.”

 History shows the answers devised, for even the country's obvious flaws, were always long in coming, and most only after a long fight - why, that has to be so, is the question.

  “These Negroes, they’re getting uppity these days. That’s a problem for us, since they got something now they never had before. The political pull to back up their upityness. Now, we’ve got to do something about this. We’ve got to give them a little something. Just enough to quiet them down, but not enough to make a difference. If we don’t move at all, their allies will line up against us. And there’ll be no way to stop them. It’ll be Reconstruction all over again.”

 I've always voted for nailing things down with facts.

  “I’m thinking about making a new cult for some extra cash on the side. What sort of preparations should I make?”

 That conservatives are back to adopting my position makes the question, of whether they are highly deliberative or of low I.Q., very real.

  "I love his premise that because Oprah is African American and successful, that means racism doesn’t exist.  If you want to talk about ignorance, that is absolute ignorance.  Seriously, racism doesn’t exist because there are successful African Americans?

During segregation there were successful African Americans.  Does that mean during segregation racism wasn’t an issue? This is the simple-minded ignorance that’s rampant throughout the entire Republican party.  It’s the kind of shallow talk that gets conservatives to stand and applaud because it sounds right—when in fact it doesn’t make any damn sense whatsoever."

I assumed they'd know how to pop a clutch, you know what I mean?

 

"Rescue public discourse from ‘mass stupidity’"

"She could restore a little common sense into the vain old nuts of those baby boomers who think we don’t notice,…"

£20 fine wine or £5 plonk? Most of us just can't tell... eight out of ten people prefer cheaper bottles in blind taste tests

"France is the least racist country in the world. Is that clear? I see it. French people do not judge people by their skin colour or their origin. As long as people are well behaved, respectful of French people and of France’s values, they have welcomed them. Welcomed too many, in fact."