Negative Zero

I like the bake sale idea at Berkeley.  I know I can get into hot water for saying this, but it is two things:  funny and stimulating.  It makes liberals turn violent.  They say they will turn over the table, throw cupcakes, etc.  Scary stuff.  Now some students at Berkeley are saying that they don't feel welcomed.  Why?  They'll take the tuition but not the cupcake?  I don't know. . . I just think the metaphor makes people think about things in a way they wish not to.  Some of them.

And I'll go out on a limb and say that Lady Gaga is stupid or at least when she talks she plays a stupid person.  It could just be part of the act.

And I'm still sticking with my prediction of a Perry America.  I'm not ruling Palin out.  But a Perry/Palin America would be the ticket.

I'm shocked that there is already trouble in Libya.  There seems to be tribal animosities.  I wouldn't have guessed that.

Parts of Spain have outlawed bullfighting.  Yesterday was the last bullfight in Barcelona.  I watched a bullfight in that stadium years ago when bullfighters were like rock stars.  Leather and meat, though, are still in with the people.

Putin has decided to be Godfather of Russia again.  He has been, but he wants the title back.

Google is contributing to conservative republicans.  Apple has done something for Christians who hate gays.

At my high school reunion, I told a true story about race in our times.  We had no minorities in our neighborhoods, so to speak.  Wally was a friend of mine from elementary school.  He was a Cherokee Indian.  So he said.  We had no experience with such things.  In high school one night, we were at a football game.  Someone from the other school called Wally a nigger.  Wally beat the hell out of the guy.  We all looked at one another somewhat aghast.  "Is Wally a nigger?"

Every one of the people to whom I told the story looked uncomfortable.  No one responded and the conversation took another direction.  Later in the night, the same group of men were disparaging the minorities that had taken over our old neighborhood.  None of them used the word "nigger."  And I realized that is what some people have learned. Don't say the "N word."  It is O.K. to dislike minorities and discriminate as long as you don't use disparaging language.  I am certain that I was the only one in that crowd who has ever marched for civil rights and I'm pretty sure that the ethnic mix of my friends was greater than those I heard speaking.  But they were embarrassed that I had used the N word.

I thought we had become "post-racial," but I find out every day how wrong I am.  We are racial on both the left and the right.  Neither will let it go.

There is a theme in this entry, though it is not the obvious one.  I am in a rancor and it seems indirection is best.  I am falling ever falling into deeper and deeper shit.