TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: Politics

  • Rampage is Racist

    Rampage is Racist

    Reader’s Representative: Sorrowful news held extra challenges:

    (Log in info) It seems that Kate Parry, the “Reader Representative” of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, has an issue with the way the Red Lake shootings were reported…

    Like anyone, journalists make mistakes, especially when working fast and under difficult conditions. There have been mistakes in the Red Lake coverage, which we’ve corrected. One that can’t really be corrected but warrants discussion is the headline used on the first day of coverage. In large type it read: “Rampage at Red Lake.”

    While the technical definition of “rampage” would accurately describe a shooting that leaves 10 dead, it was a poorly chosen word to describe a catastrophe on an Indian reservation. Portrayals of “rampaging Indians” fed hateful stereotypes in books and movies for many years. Yet I’ve seen the word used in many media around the country to describe the Red Lake shooting.

    Here in Minnesota, where so many neighbors are Native American, we have the opportunity to be better informed about native issues and sensitive to language. Someone should have stopped that headline before it saw print.

    Emphasis mine.

    So the word “rampage” is racist because Jeff Weise was an American Indian. Well, what word or phrase would you have preferred? That he went on a “merry jaunt”? That he “cavorted with bullets”? That he went on a “lead filled excursion”? The kid went on a fucking rampage. But if he was white, or black, or Hispanic, or Asian, then rampage would have been ok? It’s not like the headline read “Him go on warpath after he smoke ’em peace pipe”. Instead of trying to be politically correct, how about reporting this thing called the truth. And sometimes the truth hurts. Deal with it.

    Link via Tongue Tied.

  • The 2004 Trenchie Awards

    The 2004 Trenchie Awards

    It’s the post that I look forward to all year long. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 4th annual Trenchie awards. The best and worst of my year, as voted for by me. Let’s get right to it.

    Best Move I’ve Seen This Year:
    Veronica Guerin. This movie about an Irish journalist is assassinated by drug dealers she wrote about in a series of stories moved me in a way that I’ve never been moved before. I was first made aware of the story by the song “Veronica Guerin” off the Savatage album “Wake of Magellan”. If you get a chance, check out both the movie and the CD.

    Worst Movie I’ve Seen This Year:
    There were a plethora of movies to choose from this year. There was the unspeakable 13th Child, which was supposed to be a horror movie about the legend of the Jersey Devil. I don’t know what that crap was, though.

    Then there was the British indie flick Blood about a girl who was genetically altered to have narcotic blood.

    But the winner/loser has to be Elephant. This movie about a Columbine-like school shooting has to be the most boring piece of crap I’ve ever seen. The critics creamed their jeans over this movie, calling its writer/director Gus Van Sant a genius. As usual, the critics are on crack. It was like having a tooth drilled with no Novocaine for 81 minutes.

    Best Album of the Year:
    This was tough. It was a pretty good year for music. There was Master of the Moon by the metal god that is Dio. There was also Inner Circle by Evergrey. However, this year’s winner took the title early and never let go. It was The Glorious Burden by Iced Earth. Their first album with new vocalist and one-time Judas Priest frontman Tim “Ripper” Owens. A themed album that dealt mostly with the history of war. This album is the definition of metal.

    Worst Album of the Year:
    The Neon God Part 1: The Rise by W.A.S.P. The first part of a concept album released by the lesser of the metal gods Blackie Lawless. While I am a huge fan of the first W.A.S.P. concept album The Crimson Idol, this one just doesn’t even come close. Made me not want to pick up Vol 2.

    Best TV Show of the Year:
    The winner and new champion is House, the medical drama on Fox. It knocked 24 out of the top spot, since season 3 of 24 was all over the map in terms of storyline. House is about a doctor who solves patients diagnoses that other doctors can’t discern. Did I mention that he hates people? My kind of doctor.

    Worst TV Show of the Year:
    I have to give dishonorable mention to The 4400. The concept of that show started out great about 4400 people who were returned to earth after being abducted by aliens through the past 7 decades and returning with no knowledge of them being gone or having aged a day. Then they all started getting SUPERPOWERS. I stopped watching at that point. But the winner/loser has to go to Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital. This show was so painful to watch. Stephen King should just stick to books.

    Best Wrestling Moment of the Year:
    Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit winning their respective world titles at WrestleMania XX. It showed that popular world champions don’t have to be big, juiced out freaks. Sadly, from what I hear, we’re getting more huge juiced out freaks in the future from Vinny Mac.

    Worst Wrestling Moment of the Year: Apparently the WWE is very tightfisted about allowing people to post pics on the web. Bastards. Anyway, it has to be the Lita/Kane pregnancy angle. Not only was this possibly the worst storyline ever, it may also go down in history as the most offensive. Plus, it’s the angle that put old moon face himself Gene Snitsky on our TVs. That should be reason enough right there.

    Best Video Game of the Year:
    I know what you’re saying. What about Halo? What about San Andreas? I have one word for you. Baaaaaaaaaa. Front Mission 4 from Square-Enix was the most engrossing and addictive game I played all year. It’s a turn-based tactics style game where you battle evil in giant robots armed with giant machine guns, shotguns, and missiles.

    Honorable mention has to go to Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. A groundbreaking RPG. Instead of saving the world, the world has already been destroyed and you have to survive. My only complaint is that some of the levels are long and boring.

    Worst Video Game of the Year:
    Samurai Warriors by Koei. While Little Jay and I are big fans of the hack and slash Dynasty Warrior series, Samurai Warriors didn’t live up to its predecessors. The incredibly lousy camera angles totally ruined any chance of decent gameplay.

    Best Movie Line of the Year:
    From The Boondock Saints when Rocco fondles the passed out strippers breast. Connor MacManus says”What the fuck are you doing?” Rocco screams, “I’ll tip her”. I’m not doing it justice. See the movie.

    Biggest Dumbass of the Year:
    Bruce Friedrich of PETA, who compared the chickens KFC uses to the time in our country when blacks were used as slaves.

    Most Inane Political Agenda of the Year:
    Remember the woman who refused to have a C-section and ended up killing one of her babies that we lovingly refer to as Scarzilla. Well, at the time of her court appearances pro-death organizations like NOW, NARAL and the ACLU were saying that the prosecutors’ attempt to charge her with murder was somehow a conspiracy against abortion rights.

    Biggest Jackass Celebrity of the Year: My wife gave me the idea for this one. Everyone’s favorite skank ho, Britney Spears. Two marriages, one over in less than 24 hours. The other to a no-name dancer with no prenup while his ex-girlfriend was pregnant with his child. Going into gas station bathrooms in bare feet. And the list goes on and on. You can take the girl out of the trailer park, but you can’t take the trailer park out of the girl.

    That’s it for this year, kids. Have a safe Amateur night.

  • Hoping against Hope

    Hoping against Hope

    Things I hope for in tomorrow’s election:

    1. A clear winner. Hopefully, there will be enough of a difference in the results, so the election won’t be in dispute.
    2. If someone concedes, be a man of your word and stick to it. Al Gore could have saved this country a lot of frustrations and leftist cries of a stolen election if he had just stuck to his word.
    3. If President Bush wins by a considerable majority, that the left will finally shut up about “stolen elections”.
    4. If Senator Kerry wins that conservatives regret the loss, congratulate Senator Kerry and focus on 2008.
    5. That the news media shows a modicum of partiality and not declare winners in states that are still too close to call. If the media didn’t declare Gore the winner in Florida too early, we wouldn’t have had the problems we did in 2000.
    6. That the people who say they’ll leave the country if Bush gets re-elected actually leave if he gets re-elected.
    7. This bears repeating. That when we all wake up on November 3rd we have one clear winner, a gracious loser, and citizens who can get on with their lives.

    I know I’m hoping for too much.

  • Live Long and Protest

    Live Long and Protest

    If I had the time and resources and if I were a total geek, I would make one of the greatest satire sites ever, if it hasn’t already been done. I would take a Star Trek slant on the current war on terror.

    There would be Intergalactic A.N.S.W.E.R. who would try to tell us that the Romulans are just a poor and oppressed people. EngageOn.org, who would say that we have no business being in the Neutral Zone and accuse the current President of the United Federation Of Planets of being controlled by a Ferengi dilithium crystal mining company.

    And my personal favorite, “Shuttle Captains for the Truth”. A previously unheard of ensign actually survives an away mission. He receives a commendation for being injured in battle, but the truth is he just scratched himself with his communicator. When he’s discharged from Star Fleet after only three months, he speaks out at several rallies in favor of the Borg. Then years later, he tries running for President of the Federation, claiming he singlehandedly defeated the Borg.

  • Nazi Recruiters

    Nazi Recruiters

    I really hate to steal ideas from other bloggers, but Zombyboy from Resurrection Song presents a really good point.

    Panzerfaust Records is a neo-Nazi record label whose bands promote the usual Nazi rhetoric. What really sickens me is what they call Project Schoolyard. I’ll let them use their own words to hang themselves…

    In the spring of 2004, German patriots announced their plan to produce 100,000 sampler CDs containing German nationalist rock and roll and distribute them to youth in their country. This effort, Project Schoolyard, was examined by lawyers to make sure that none of the music violated Germany’s oppressive laws against free speech. Although everything was approved, the project received much hysterical media attention, and the CD was outlawed by the German government. Every CD factory in the country was contacted by the government and warned not to produce the now “illegal music.” Every school in Germany was contacted by police and told to be on the alert for anyone distributing the forbidden CDs. It looked like Project Schoolyard had been shut down, but on Friday, September 3, 2004, the increasingly popular far-right political party, NPD, put out a press release that a new CD had been arranged, a factory had agreed to produce it, and that 25,000 of the discs would be handed out all over Germany by volunteers on the weekend of September 4th and 5th. Since the government does not operate on weekends, the soonest that they could outlaw that CD is first thing Monday morning, but of course, they will all have been distributed by then.

    As an expression of the increasing level of international solidarity and cooperation between White nationalists, Project Schoolyard has crossed the Atlantic and is being continued here in the U.S. Panzerfaust Records is pressing 100,000 copies of a pro-White sampler CD to be handed out to White youth from coast to coast in every state, including Hawaii. Volunteers from every pro-White group and organization in the U.S. have signed up to assist us in this project, as well as numerous unaffiliated individuals, consisting mostly of our customers/supporters who are high school students themselves. These CDs will be handed out in middle schools, high schools, university campuses, shopping malls, sporting events, mainstream concerts, parties, etc…

    They want to recruit kids, your kids. Want to do something about it? Here’s their web host EV1SERVERS.net. Write them here. The host is based out of Houston TX. The local paper is the Houston Chronicle. Write the Chronicle about it here. Let them know that white supremacists and their sympathizers are not welcome near our schools. Don’t just sit back and do nothing.

    (UPDATE: EV1Servers has since dropped that site)

  • Another Confederate Controversy

    Another Confederate Controversy

    Here’s where I get called a liberal, a Yankee, and usually some other unflattering comments, which usually show off the ignorance of the commenter.

    Confederate flag causes flap:

    So this kid from a little Podunk town in North Carolina attends college at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He buys two confederate flags at a Virginia gift shop. He displays one in his window and then says that he didn’t think it would be a problem? In the essence of fairness, here is his argument.

    The flag’s owner says it’s about pride.

    People don’t get upset about the Rebel flag in King, N.C., he says.

    The town of about 7,000 people, and “about 97 percent white,” Montgomery says, are used to seeing it hanging in front of neighbors’ houses.

    The flag comes second – after the American flag, before the state flag – in the town’s annual parade.

    To Montgomery, the flag means rolling hills and lush Carolina valleys. It means King, where he knows everyone and everyone knows him.

    It’s collard greens, grits with butter and a friendly wave from a front porch as you drive by, he says.

    It’s the South he knows and loves.

    “When I look at it, I think of home.”

    First off, I think flying the Confederate flag before the state flag of North Carolina is doing a great disservice to North Carolina. Basically, what you’re saying is that a defunct, anti-abolitionist, segregationist and some would even say a seditious country is better than what North Carolina is today.

    I may just be a “Yankee transplant” but I love North Carolina, and I’m damn proud to make it my home. And it’s all these rebel flag waving hicks that make it look bad to the rest of the country. And if you want to bring something with you that reminds of you of home, bring a banner from Duke or N.C. State or God forbid…Chapel Hill.

    Now the opposing opinion, which I happen to agree with.

    The “Southern Cross” rose to post-Civil War prominence around the turn of the 20th century, at the same time many Reconstruction-era reforms were being eroded by Southern state governments, he says.

    It rose again during the 1960s, when those opposing the Civil Rights movement used it as a symbol of defiance against the federally mandated integration of schools.

    The Strom Thurmond-led Dixiecrat party adopted it when it broke from the Democrats during the early stages of the Civil Rights struggle.

    So have countless white supremacy groups, including the Ku Klux Klan.

    “As a historian, I find it difficult to untangle the symbol from racial inequality,” Jones says. “To say this flag isn’t linked to slavery – That’s a historically inaccurate statement if we’re honest about it.”

    And let’s not leave out that the Confederacy lost. Now, this kid has every Constitutional right to display the flag if he so chooses. However, common-sense dictates that if you do choose to display the flag, there is going to be controversy.

    Personally, I think the south has every right to be proud. I love the south. I extol its virtues on almost a daily basis. What they should not be proud of is the Confederacy. If you want to have a universally recognized flag of southern pride, then maybe y’all should get together and design a new one. Because the old one is nothing to be proud of.

  • Clinton to have bypass

    It’s being reported that former President Clinton will be undergoing heart bypass surgery. While I was not a fan of his administration I do wish him the best of luck in his recovery. Besides, out of all the Presidents who would you rather party with? I think the answer is obvious.

  • Election Dysfunction

    Election Dysfunction

    Is it just me? I just can’t seem to get excited about this election. I really would like President Bush to get re-elected, but if Kerry wins…”meh”. It will just be like the Clinton years, a president who is ineffectual at best. 2000 was very different for me.

    I kid about Kerry being the anti-Christ, but in 2000 I really believed that about the Gore/Lieberman ticket. While people are bitching now about how the FCC is clamping down on the first amendment because you can’t talk about anal sex on the radio, Gore and Lieberman would not have stopped there.

    Gore had his roots in censorship, going back to his wife’s failed project of the ’80s, Tipper Gore’s PMRC. Lieberman, on the other hand, had his roots in something more recent. He belonged to a similar group called the Parents Television Council. Their mission was trying to tell you what should and should not be on TV.

    Gore in his speech at the DNC In 2000 even echoes these sentiments when he told Hollywood that they need to change their ways when it came to sex and violence. Where was the talk of trampling free speech then? Oh, that’s right. When liberals talk of censorship, it’s ok because it’s for the greater good. With Republicans, it’s all about restricting your rights.

    Now, looking back, who would you have rather had in the White House during 9/11? I think if Al Gore was president at that time, it would have been like the president character that Jack Nicholson played in “Mars Attacks”. Gore would just keep trying to negotiate with the terrorists while they keep up attack after attack until it’s too late.

    Anyway, there are no real hot button issues for me in this election. I happen to agree with more of President Bush’s stances than I do with John Kerry’s. Whoever wins though, my life will go on the same as it always does. No better and no worse.

  • Office Politics

    Office Politics

    On Friday, we had politics in the office again, this time from the other side of the spectrum. One of the staff was going around asking for signatures on a letter she was sending to John Edwards asking him to support the proposed marriage amendment. Obviously, she doesn’t realize how the Democratic Party works these days. Just because Edwards is from the south doesn’t mean that he shares the opinions of its less tolerant citizens. He’s not going to rock the party boat, even if he believes in gay marriage or not.

    Anyway, what galls me is that this person is so arrogant that she thinks everybody has the same opinion as her and if they don’t, they should. Luckily, when she came to my desk, my phone started to ring. She also happened to go around the office on a day when no supervisors were here. We also have gay employees here. I wonder if she asked them. Somehow, I seriously doubt it.

    Personally, I oppose the marriage amendment. Let them marry. Who are they hurting? Hell, let them have families for all I care. I’d rather see a child get adopted by a gay couple than end up in some doctor’s dumpster.

    The point is. I don’t do politics at work. People are very passionate about their politics. I need to come in every day and work with these people. When you start discussing politics at work, no matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on, you’re going to make enemies. Having enemies at work will affect your performance. So don’t be an assclown. Leave your politics at home. Some of us are here to work.

  • Big Brother Joe is watching you

    Big Brother Joe is watching you

    My bone of contention today is from my favorite Senator from Connecticut, Joe Lieberman. He has co-authored a bill with a $90 Million price tag that will try to figure out whether kids’ favorite TV shows, movies, and video games are actually bad for their health.

    There’s a good use of taxpayer money, huh? Even Lieberman’s own censorship squad, the Parents Television Council, say this is a bad idea. How about this Joe? Why not do a study on why people stopped parenting their kids. Joe even admits as much…

    Lieberman says parents need to play a more active role in what their kids are watching.

    “You can’t put it all off on the entertainment industry,” he said.

    Then what is the point of this bill? If it’s so obvious, then why do you need $90 Million? Lieberman has very pro-censorship leanings. I feel like this is his way of trying to disguise a “well-meaning” program that’s actually an Orwellian dream for him.