A wrong set of priorities.

This is just disturbing.

A teenage girl who was dropped from her high school's cheerleading squad after refusing to chant the name of a basketball player who had sexually assaulted her must pay compensation of $45,000 (£27,300) after losing a legal challenge against the decision.

The United States Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a review of the case brought by the woman, who is known only as HS. Lower courts had ruled that she was speaking for the school, rather than for herself, when serving on a cheerleading squad – meaning that she had no right to stay silent when coaches told her to applaud.

I am sure what to even say about this, honestly. The dripping misogyny is disturbing.

She was 16 when she said she had been raped at a house party attended by dozens of fellow students from Silsbee High School, in south-east Texas. One of her alleged assailants, a student athlete called Rakheem Bolton, was arrested, with two other young men.

In court, Bolton pleaded guilty to the misdemeanour assault of HS. He received two years of probation, community service, a fine and was required to take anger-management classes. The charge of rape was dropped, leaving him free to return to school and take up his place on the basketball team.

Four months later, in January 2009, HS travelled to one of Silsbee High School's basketball games in Huntsville. She joined in with the business of leading cheers throughout the match. But when Bolton was about to take a free throw, the girl decided to stand silently with her arms folded.

"I didn't want to have to say his name and I didn't want to cheer for him," she later told reporters. "I just didn't want to encourage anything he was doing."

Richard Bain, the school superintendent in the sport-obsessed small town, saw things differently. He told HS to leave the gymnasium. Outside, he told her she was required to cheer for Bolton. When the girl said she was unwilling to endorse a man who had sexually assaulted her, she was expelled from the cheerleading squad.

This is one of those stories that makes me feel ashamed. The sort of "sports mentality" that made the superintendent think this was the best way to handle this situation is one reason, that I have very little love for organized sports.

I guess the thought is, it is her fault for being a victim. Further cementing my view of Texas as the shit hole of the universe.

This ruling lacks even basic humanity.

-Cheer

Why we are screwed.

I know it is all the rage that "both sides are the same". A matter of collective fact, as it were.

But how do square this quote:

What have I told you about diet and exercise? Exercise is irrelevant.... "How do you know all this?" One of the reasons I know what I know is that I know liberals, and I know liberals lie, and if Michelle Obama's gonna be out there ripping into "food desserts" and saying, "This is why people are fat," I know it's not true. "Rush, do you really believe that? It's that simple to you, liberals lie?" Yes, it is, folks. Once you learn that, once you come to grips with that, once you accept that, the rest is easy. Very, very simple. Now, my doctor has never told me to restrict any intake of salt, but if he did, I wouldn't. I'd just spend more time in the steam or the sauna sweating it out.

Show me the prominent progressives, or liberals, or Democratic leaders who would say this about Conservatives or republicans? This is anti-science, anti-knowledge, anti- anything that makes sense. The two sides are not the same. Not even remotely.

To paraphrase Robert Novak (from the excellent Lee Atwater documentary Boogie Man), the difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats truly believe in governing, and Republicans just want power.

He is right, and they illustrate that with every day. Just watch their rhetoric. Holding two contradictory positions simultaneously is common place (we will cut spending and create jobs all while during a economic contraction. An economic impossibility.).

So again, I absolutely agree with Bill Maher from my previous post.

-Cheers

Conservative vs. Liberal....part 483

You know, in ever political discussion, when talking about the ideological right and left. There is a consensus that the both behave equally as bad. There is always an implied equivalence of the two sides.

As it is well know, I do not agree with that. Some times one side is worse than the other. Some times one side steps way beyond the bounds of reasonable dissent.

I hope that this, is some sort of hoax, cause if it isn't then we all have a lot more to be worried about.

Last Friday, someone going by the name "dermdoc" posted a thread on a message board for Texas A&M students and alumni with this topic: "Laid off my first Obama voting employee today."

"Our reimbursement rates are spiraling downward, taxes are projected to go up with Obamacare, so I did it," the person wrote. He later added: "I made this decision because I can."

"It is kind of interesting watching their face as you explain to them the economic consequences of the policies of the guy they voted for," wrote dermdoc.

Hotsheet reached out to the person who we believe to have been responsible for the posting, but our requests for comment went unanswered. Late Wednesday afternoon, after Hotsheet's inquiry, the thread appeared to be removed from the TexAgs.com Web site. (The original link was here.) We took screen shots before the removal; you can view the full first page of comments here.

The posting prompted 20 pages of comments, some celebrating dermdoc's initial post and others questioning whether it was appropriate for him to have laid off an employee seemingly on the basis of his or her politics.

I am fairly certain that is illegal. On top of showing a stunning lack of knowledge about the issues he purports to care about.

But to the main point. I do not recall, even at the height of Bush's tenure, these sorts of things being bandied about in the liberal community. Jokes about moving to Europe/Canada? Sure. Firing people, or intimating that if you vote for someone I don't agree with, that in and of itself is a fireable offense? What?!

This is the fever swamp that the modern day conservative/republican inhabits. Liberal/progressives are not people with whom they disagree, they are sinister agents who wish ill on the country have no love for said country and who posses ideas that are fundamentally evil.

This is no way to have a debate. The idea that the electorate is going to reward this sort of behavior just shows how far we have fallen, and has the air of oppression to it.

-Cheers

A woman's burden...

I had to read this post a couple times, and then hit up the links in the article for more information but I am still having some problems getting my head around this.

I cognitively understand what is going on here. But I have problems internalizing how the victim is to blame.

It isn't just an issue of cultural learning, though. It's also a way for women to emotionally distance themselves from rape victims: I won't be attacked, because I'm not one of those girls. Rules give the illusion of control; if you abide by them, you'll be safe. Thinking of rape as it is -- a random, unwarranted violation -- can be terrifying and paralyzing. It's much easier to think about any kind of assault as being predictably triggered, and therefore preventable. It's a sort of armor women can put on to feel safe and invulnerable.

I guess what has me conflicted is I absolutely understand the coping mechanism going on here. Something horrible has happened, there must be a reason for it. Even if you blame yourself, that is some form of control over an uncontrollable happening.

From my understanding, this stems from the intrinsic belief that everything is avoidable. I don't subscribe to that belief, but then I haven't been raped so I haven't had to deal with the emotional and physical trauma that cries out for a reason.

No one wants to think of themselves, as at the mercy of a cruel and distant fate. But I can't help but have even more sympathy for when this happens. I know it doesn't help, but it must be said isn't your fault.

-Cheers

I Fear for Humanity.....

This literally is horrible. Soul crushingly, as a people we possibly have forfeited our rights to exist, sort of horrible.

How anyone with any sense of decency could sit by and watch this.

Truly disturbing.

-Cheers

Impulse Blogging....

After some more reading yesterday, I came to a few conclusions. I do not think I will blog anymore about the tragedy in Pittsburgh in any greater detail then I did yesterday. I highlighted a piece of the coverage that I thought was missing from the nightly news cast.

Delving deeper, it just became more obvious that Mr. Sodini desperately craved attention. So in respect to his victims, I will no longer proved that which he craved.

So instead of a in-depth follow-up post. I thought some sort of commentary would be better.

There are definitely aspects of this issue that should be studied. But not in public.

Once again, Mr. Coates puts some more truth to how prejudice and bias can be transparent.

Crazy Times....

First off a non-post related comment. I would like to offer my condolences to a good friend who recently lost a family member.

Secondly my condolences to the city Pittsburgh and the families of the young ladies who were murdered there this morning.

As gruesome and horrifying as this story is, I had not seen this part of it covered.

Here’s the very first paragraphs you see on GeorgeSodini.com after his vital statistics. No member of the press covering this could miss it yet for some reason, none dare to discuss it. It is his very first post in his pseudo-blog the day after the first African-American in U.S. history was elected president (emphasis mine in bold & italic so you can’t miss it):

Why do this?? To young girls? Just read below. I kept a running log that includes my thoughts and actions, after I saw this project was going to drag on.
November 5, 2008:
Planned to do this in the summer but figure to stick around to see the election outcome. This particular one got so much attention and I was just curious. Not like I give a flying fcuk who won, since this exit plan was already planned. Good luck to Obama! He will be successful. The liberal media LOVES him. Amerika has chosen The Black Man. Good! In light of this I got ideas outside of Obama’s plans for the economy and such. Here it is: Every black man should get a young white girl hoe to hone up on. Kinda a reverse indentured servitude thing. Long ago, many a older white male landowner had a young Negro wench girl for his desires. Bout’ time tables are turned on that shit. Besides, dem young white hoez dig da bruthrs! LOL. More so than they dig the white dudes! Every daddy know when he sends his little girl to college, she be bangin a bruthr real good. I saw it. “Not my little girl”, daddy says! (Yeah right!!) Black dudes have thier choice of best white hoez. You do the math, there are enough young white so all the brothers can each have one for 3 or 6 months or so.

I do not much believe in a heaven or hell as any sort of concrete concept. But on days like today, I hope there is one, and I hope there is a particularly hot spot reserved for Mr. Sodini.

I can not honestly say this man was 'insane'. He spent almost year working his way towards this (check the date of the first post). His animus towards women and African-Americans seems to just be grist for his psychosis. Not even sure this is racist. The scope of it is just so large I am having difficulty getting my mind around it.

My disgust meter is pegged today.

"Post-Racial"

My most heartfelt sympathies go out to the family and friends of Stephen Johns.

There is a lot of coverage about this all over the teevee and the tubes. But I must give Shep Smith over at FOX his due, for calling out his watchers and offering some salient commentary.



This throws the recent invectives hurled at Judge Sotomayor, into even more stark contrast. She is not a racist. That above is what racism consists of.

Steve Benen over at Washington Monthly has more to say on the topic.

I just feel sick to my stomach so I will leave it again with my condolences.

-Cheers