Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v4

Tag: America

  • How Do I Get to Be Black Like Obama?

    Barack Obama is called a lot of things. Being a candidate for President of the United States means a lot of people apply a lot of different labels, good or bad or indifferent, to categorize you and anticipate your every move. I find it interesting people use the labels “African American” or “Black” to describe…

  • Trust and Transparency

    One of the books I am reading, Gut Feelings, made a statement: Transparency and trust are two sides of the same coin. without much elaboration. To place the statement in context, Gerd Gigerenzer was writing about moral systems. Specifically, how the Ten Commandments was so effective because it they are so simple. The American tax…

  • Exclusion Groups

    This is America! Equality! Liberty! Democracy! Arizona has a bill S.B. 1108 to legislate the forbidding of student groups who are against the principles of America. Specifically democracy, capitalism, pluralism, and religious tolerance must be upheld by all. A founding principle of the United States was dissent. Disagreeing with King George III, British Parliament, and…

  • Has Anything Changed?

    The previous post regarding the FBI checking on whether a photographer was Middle Eastern reminded me…. The Civil Rights Movement occurred before I was born. However, my parents were afflicted by blatantly racist laws which continued for decades. State anti-miscegenation law [1] at the time prohibited White females from marrying outside of their race. Since…

  • FBI Investigates Legal Activity Also

    One of the reasons my photos sets are more full of flowers than buildings is people don’t call the FBI over pictures of flowers. While it is perfectly legal to take pictures of buildings from public spaces, it makes “victims” nervous. No one cares about flowers. I can take all the pictures I want without…

  • National Debt

    Saw a graph showing the United States national debt color coded by presidential party. The intent is to illustrate how Republican presidents are the big spenders. Unfortunately, all too many Americans believe presidential candidates when they claim they will do some action or another. The farce is the President of the United States sends a…

  • Not Black Enough

    Because of racial profiling, I get false positive screened for extra security screening in airports. So, I need to look more African American. Some suggestions so far: Grow out my hair and wear it in an afro / dreadlocks / cornrows. Clothing improvements: baggy jeans, Jordans, tall teeshirt or sports jersey, one stud earing, chain,…

  • Bicentennial for the Abolition of Slave Trade to US Tomorrow

    An Even Better Reason to Celebrate has a nice longer version of this quote from a NYT OpEd piece on tomorrow being the bicentennial for the ablution of slave trade to the United States. WE Americans live in a society awash in historical celebrations. The last few years have witnessed commemorations of the bicentennial of…

  • From Dead and Buried to Reaching the Stars

    What is the American fascination with Tutankhamun? Personally, I favor Ramses II. Actually, Ramses II was one of my first obsessions. I knew everything there was to know about him at seven years old. Decades later, I’ve forgotten most of what I knew. We share the phoneme “Ra”. Ra was an Egyptian sun god probably…