My great aunt
she spoke no English
By choice? I think not
Because simple questions or greetings
Provoked blank looks.
Read the rest of this entry »
It was self-defense, the defendant said. The defendant said the victim threatened rape with a 7-inch dagger in his hand. So the defendant took hold of the weapon and stabbed the victim 61 times. The medical examiner testified as to the victim’s injuries:
Ponni Arunkumar, a Cook County assistant medical examiner, described to the jury the 61 stab wounds the 38-year-old Hauser sustained.
She also noted significant injury to Hauser’s jugular vein, lungs, liver, pancreas, renal artery, kidneys, spine and abdominal aorta, which is one of the main blood suppliers in the body. Arunkumar testified that any of these injuries could have caused death.
They found the defendant’s fingerprints on the weapon. The victim’s fingerprints were not found. There was no sign of a struggle. Two wine glasses sitting on a nearby table were undisturbed.
And now Joseph Biedermann has been found not guilty.
He was just defending himself from an unwanted advance. This is sometimes call the “gay panic” defense. His attorney said that he was innocent. Send the boy home to his mother, he said. (The “boy” is 30 years old.)
I heard on the radio the other morning that swine flu is now believed to have originated in Asia. But researchers “have no way to prove that theory.” In the meantime, enjoy all the pictures of Asian people illustrating the articles on the story. Here’s a picture from the home page of USA Today. I was reading a couple of other articles and they were illustrated with other brown folks–people from Malaysia and Buenos Aires.
Part i here.
I think I’m going to go sneeze on someone. Excuse me, I’ll be back shortly.
The New York Times has an article on Lloyd Gaines here. Gaines was an African American man who won a Supreme Court case that ruled he must be allowed to attend the segregated University of Missouri law school.
Unfortunately, there’s no happy ending. Gaines mysteriously disappeared. But his case opened the doors for other African Americans.
Go read Eugene Robinson’s opinion here.
The only real suspense in the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is whether the Republican Party will persist in tying its fortunes to an anachronistic claim of white male exceptionalism and privilege.
Republicans’ outrage, both real and feigned, at Sotomayor’s musings about how her identity as a “wise Latina” might affect her judicial decisions is based on a flawed assumption: that whiteness and maleness are not themselves facets of a distinct identity. Being white and male is seen instead as a neutral condition, the natural order of things. Any “identity” — black, brown, female, gay, whatever — has to be judged against this supposedly “objective” standard.
Thus it is irrelevant if Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. talks about the impact of his background as the son of Italian immigrants on his rulings — as he did at his confirmation hearings — but unforgivable for Sotomayor to mention that her Puerto Rican family history might be relevant to her work. Thus it is possible for Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to say with a straight face that heritage and experience can have no bearing on a judge’s work, as he posited in his opening remarks yesterday, apparently believing that the white male justices he has voted to confirm were somehow devoid of heritage and bereft of experience.
(I love that phrase, “tying its fortunes to an anachronistic claim of white male exceptionalism and privilege.”)
And I find it funny that Jeff Sessions is the ranking republican, especially given his history. You gotta watch all those folks of color, otherwise they might be forcing civil rights down your throat.
Does anybody have any idea what these might be?
One side has a rounded cup base, and the other side has a point sticking out.
In business news, a new study reports some segments of the population are not doing so well with their 401(k)s. You know, those mine-orr-itt-eeess.
Much was made out of the fact that African Americans and Latinos are less likely to participate in 401(ks), contribute less and are more likely to make hardship withdrawals or loans against the savings.
But what about all those other folks who aren’t black or white or latino?
Well, it turns out that one of those mine-orr-itt-eees is doing okay. Guess which one? (.pdf report here) Read the rest of this entry »
So the vice chair of the Young Republicans National Federation wrote a facebook entry cheering on a guy who wrote the following:
obama bin lauden is the new terrorist….muslim is on there side …..need to take this country back from all these mad coons…….and illegals
Her response was, “You tell em Eric! lol” (jpg of facebook page here) But she got called on her racism.
What was her response?
“It is a disgrace that these types of political attacks are taking place and once again, it proves that my opponents will stoop to the lowest levels to steal this election from the jaws of victory.”
And what was the response of the Young Republicans? Why, they voted her chair, of course. Thanks for asking.
A mom drove two 12-year-olds, an 8-year-old, a 7-year-old and a 3-year-old to the mall and dropped them off. Then she drove home to get some rest.
What does a New York Times columnist have to say about this?
What really sent my head spinning after reading Kevane’s story was the degree to which it drove home the fact that our country’s resentment, and even hatred, of well-educated, apparently affluent women is spiraling out of control.
Really? And how do you think the police might have responded if the parent wasn’t well-educated and was poor? Do you think she might have felt some of the country’s “resentment”?
An interesting story from the New York Times about children born during the war to French women and German soldiers.
Wut they sed