Put a Sock in that Crucifix or If I See You Bend that Knee Again, I'll Break It

"If Jesus came back today, and saw what was going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing up." (Max Von Sydow Hannah and Her Sisters)

 I have to admit because my Bears are doing a death spiral I am not paying so much attention to football but Tebow irritates the shit out of me. I don't get the sense that Jesus had a hype man at the Sermon on the Mount (though there may have been a few grousers) nor that he would enjoy outre displays of belief in his word. Tebow may be a nice guy, a good sport, a fantastic conversationalist with always the perfect mot juste but something of the very public display of your fealty to whatever deity you worship, smacks of a smug, "well look whose NOT going to hell" condescension to all forced to endure it. It particularly grates in a society where over 83% of its population define themselves as Christians. Being publicly worshipful is not a profile in courage in 21st Century America. If this were 100AD Rome well I may give you some props. These types of displays necessarily are arrogant self serving and pompous. The outright narcissism of it, as if the highest consciousness in reality should give a fuck that you beat the Vegas spread. My god, I wish Randy Newman's God from "God's Song" would speak.

How fucking spiritually childish can a species be?

Get Yo White People in Check

This post is in response to an interesting post over at Daily Kos  in which Rush Limbaugh shows his WHOLE racist ass. I would post the video but realize I would rather not have Rush's skank ass on my blog. So below is my response to the original post.

There is room for debate

in your post. I disagree on a couple of points. 1) I don't believe the words of a racist simpleton  are indicative of the failure of Afri-US people to protect or honor our heritage. Foolish people will be foolish regardless of what we may do to maintain and protect our heritage. As you have noted  this type of character is a regular in the racial tragedy of US life. Paraphrasing H. Rap Brown, "Racism is as American as cherry pie." There are many white americans that have an existential need to perpetuate, articulate or bloviate these ideas. Their white supremacist consciousness makes it so. And worse, now many function in such a shameless fashion that they deem it "bravery" to be public about their beliefs. Whether for psychological need, social aspirations or political manipulations, racists will be racists. In spite of these troglodytes and the various formal and informal systems that support (-ed) them, peoples of color have managed to survive and even excel in this country. What gives me a weird satisfaction is that, what is driving Rush and his hordes ass backward crazy, is that the world they long for, can not and will not exist again. As Bob Marley said

We refuse to be
What you wanted us to be
We are what we are
That's the way it's going to be, if you don't know

My 2nd concern is with the trope of "ours [Black people's] is the outrage". As I tell my students, race is a white person problem. I would bet a Mitt Romney $10,000 bill, that most people of color would probably prefer to move on from this country's racial hangups (and the attendant racist problems). Yet it remains that sectors of the white population continue to see the world in Black and White (see existential need above). My question is to progressive whites, where is your outrage? White supremacy isn't just f***ing up the lives of people of color. The money being pumped in to the prison industrial complex to keep young people of color in the new slavery could build a lot of schools for children of all colors and ethnicities. I have rarely seen a mainstream white Democrat call out Tea Partiers or any of the right wing ass hat wind bags on their racism or defend President Obama (or  Michelle Obama and their daughters) from it. This is not a call for blind partisanship, but one for simple human dignity. I want to see more than Tim Wise dealing critically with white supremacy and white privilege. Y'all need to get your white people in check! It's not like Black people, with great allies from across the spectrum, have not (and are still doing it) fought the good fight. It's time for all sincere human minded people to take it seriously. Rush Limbaugh and his cadres are an obvious menace to us all. So let us all deal with it together.

Update: I think the gods of race are listening to me!

Dance in the sun by laughing at the dark

Above is footage of an Afro-Colombian ceremony that was performed at the loss of an infant. The ceremony and tenor of the ceremony addresses the question, "What is it to grieve?" Whether you believe in a utopian after life for the spirit or you believe that our existence comes to an absolute end at the moment of mortality, we should celebrate when a life ends. In the former we should celebrate the peace and glory the deceased will be welcomed into and in the latter we should celebrate, however brief, the beauty and miracle of simply existing. We forget in the vastness of the physical universe, in its aeons ancient existence and overwhelmingly hostile environs that the possibility of a place that facilitates, nay encourages the growth, survival and maturation sentient life, is beyond probability. So the child, or any life, coming to be, in and of itself, is an extraordinary thing that we should smile laugh, cheer, dance and sing in celebration of. The conditions of life can be hard, dark and unforgiving, but the fact of life in the midst of that dark should always be valued.