1. It is amusing that it is San Jose, home to Reed, whom is the darling of Brian Darby, a San Jose resident, political professional, major donor of up to a thousand dollars for Santa Clara Plays Fair (so I guess they are not volunteers), is the city that has a transperancy concerning emails. However, Gavin Newsom in San Francisco is close on the list. He has rejected all requests to disclose the emails he has exchanged with Santa Clara City Council Member (and his partner in fundraising activities) Jamie McLeod for the past two years. Wonder why?
2. Emails from a council member are public information.
3. Reed, No Lying, No Lobbying (oh, Chuck Reed, Incorporated, represents Valley Christian), No Secrecy. Will, I guess he scores a 2 on that one. (Do we all remmeber, Victor, the secret staffer, and his effort to put a state prison in San Jose?)
Interesting topic. If the Mayor and Council conduct ANY kind of City business on any type of communication device it should be considered to fall under the Brown Act.
The stupidity of some drivers never ceases to amaze. Yesterday, Highway 87 was backed-up due to an accident. Rather than wait the extra few minutes to proceed, some geniuses made U-turns and left via the ON ramp. Yes, they went the wrong way on the ramp. Some brilliant subjects even BACKED-UP all the way down the ramp.
Distressing that these morons were willing to risk their lives and the lives of others so they wouldn’t have to wait a few extra minutes.
The Mercury News returned to its vomit today (8/23/09) in its page one hate piece denouncing “angry white men.”
The first thing to understand about this hate piece is that its principal writer is Mick Swift who appears to loathe the entire demographic of diverse white American men. It shows in every word he types, and it showed on 12/10/06 when he wrote a hate piece about Californians departing the state.
In that hate piece, he kindly referred to diverse American Latino departures from California as a “Latino diaspora,” but diverse white American departures were mocked as “white flight.” To see into Swift’s mind, just compare “Latino diaspora” with “white flight” and ask whether this is his bigotry or his supremacy speaking.
The second thing to note about Swift’s hate piece today is that he consults only one of the so-called “angry white men” who is quoted as saying, “I just feel the government is intruding in our lives.” That’s hardly an angry statement, yet it is the only evidence from the people Swift smears.
All the remainder of his article is by various jumped-up propagandists who tell him about this new breed of American men. Swift’s essay isn’t about “angry white men,” it’s about the attitudes of those who despise the diverse white American men. The only thing proven is that the really angry haters are the “experts” who are quoted.
Mick Swift is an instance of what I call the “flying saucer leftists”. They orbit the planet in their flying saucers, look down on the “little people”, and make invidious moral pronouncements.
Metaphor aside, people such as Swift are classic cases of solipsism, i.e., people who believe they are the only intelligent mind in the universe. There is no possibility of intelligent or rational discourse with solipsists. Their reality is painted on the inside of their skulls like a neanderthal’s cave painting, and nothing is going to change their image of reality.
It has gotten very old to hear how white males are to blame for everything wrong in society. Those who say white men are racist are just as, if not more racist than those they accuse.
Dale, the Merc is nothing more than fish wrap. As for Mick Swift, never heard of the guy and, seeing that his story is in the Merc, who would believe it anyway?
Symphony Silicon Valley is giving a free series of pops concerts, starting today.
They could have done a better job with publicity, so today’s audience was pretty small. Nice for the people who were there. Hopefully it will pick up as word gets around.
Here’s the URL for full info (Cleo Laine on Tuesday!).
For a positive spin I wanted to post something I experienced at the San Jose Salsa Festival. We had a booth with crafts for the kids. Everyone of the kids who participated said thanks afterwards – or if they forgot their parents asked them: “What do you say?” 100% ended up with a thank you. We hear so much about problems with kids and parents on the East Side. They deserve kudos on this one!
Dale, you need to get with the program: It’s hate speech when whites denigrate blacks/hispanics/muslims etc but it’s no problem when blacks/hispanics/muslims are hostile to white people. Understand?
Glad to see Mr. Warner protesting the latest use of newspeak, this “angry white men” stuff is nonsense.
As is always the case, when it comes to the way things are going, there are happy Americans, unhappy Americans, and millions with opinions falling somewhere in between. This truism does nothing positive for American journalism, as it has next to no value on the newsstand and is of no use in the quest to influence (read dupe) the public. But take a marketable and politically useful phrase like “angry white men,” and just watch how quickly that term, spoon-fed to the public with next to nothing in the way of evidence, will quickly make its way from the news reporters to the news spinners to the news makers holding office, where it will be used to categorize, disparage, and dismiss the concerns of huge numbers of everyday citizens.
In the attempt to stay informed good citizens are forced to digest the news as they drive the roadways, defensively. “Angry white men,” a term that no doubt accurately describes some people, becomes devoid of real meaning when used by partisan journalists to pejoratively define a segment of the population that includes women and non-whites. But what the phrase loses in meaning it picks up in political power, as it provides fellow partisans a demon against whom to rail and rally, and all but ends any chance for the public to engage in a reasoned examination of the facts. Who, after all, wants to waste time arguing with a bunch of angry white men, who we’ve learned long ago are racists?
What they want to do with “angry white men” is exactly what they did with “vigilante” when a group of American citizens banded together and formed the Minutemen, a group whose charter expressly forbids the defining component of the word vigilante, which is “taking the law into one’s own hands.” Nevertheless, thanks largely to the efforts of the media, many if not most Americans view the Minutemen as vigilantes.
Though the many smug little agitators masquerading as journalists no doubt see their manipulations as evidence of their cunning and skill, what they actually do is nothing more sophisticated than common name-calling, of the same sort that allows black trash to deride their civilized brethren as “Uncle Toms,” or one Mexican-American to berate an integrated other of “acting white,” or extremist Jews to disrespect the moderates of their tribe by branding them as “self-hating.” This name-calling is never employed as a precursor to honest dialogue, it is instead employed to avoid it. And it always comes with negative consequences.
On the issue of health care reform, something about which we are all expected to have an opinion, the disputed “reform” was intentionally designed to be so vague as to render vulnerable to smear tactics anyone who dared doubt or oppose it. That is the way things are done in Washington, where a reasoned examination of the issues benefits no one in power, be it Obama (health care) or Bush (Patriot Act). The strategy is, instead, to write a proposal so large and unwieldy as to make specific concerns easily dismissible as misunderstanding, and then use the media to demonize any “angry white men” who get in the way.
(If you’ve heard the town hall protesters demonized as “talk radio” disciples then you might be interested to know that Obama’s FCC is targeting conservative talk radio. Apparently President Change, perhaps taking a cue from the People’s Republic, intends to program our radio stations… hope he doesn’t like rap.)
FinFan,
If people stopped buying the Murkey News, and other papers like it, and stopped watching programs that spread all this garbage then perhaps one day we’ll get real journalist reporting, “Just the Facts Maam.” Until such time, I think the best place for the Murk is in my cat box as a liner.
Join us at American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter on September 15th from 9 am to 12 noon to pick-up your kit (one per agency) and attend a hands-on training session to help your organization effectively utilize this kit. The session will cover preparing your staff and clients for a pandemic, developing a plan for service continuity, how to work with the emergency management system, preparing for your community response role and activating your own pandemic plan. Please register on the eventbrite link listed below or contact Anna Swardenski at ar**********@gm***.com
Great news!! All of San Jose’s pressing problems have been solved! Otherwise, why would the city council seriously be looking at banning plastic bags at grocery stores in San Jose if there were more serious issues?
I hope the city council votes “no” on the bag ban. We don’t need more government intrusion into our lives. There are already no-littering and no-dumping laws; ENFORCE THEM before passing more nuisance legislation. Everybody needs to write to their council rep and urge them to vote “no.”
So the “S.J. Silly Council” wants to impose (what is essentially)a Tax on bags on the unsuspecting citizenry of our once fair city (perfect time for a new tax) .OMG, these geniuses have finally found somthing they can do without instructions from the(Big)Labor Council or the Chamber of Commerce. This—presumably—is the best this “enlightened” group of “Greener Than Thou ” wantobes can come up with.By all means Your Sillinesses don’t apply any creative thinking here, no PR campaigns to promote recycling of bags, no enforcement of existing regs and certainly don’t place recycle bins around the city to contain the problem. Ah,but this is new San Jo and it’s the best we can hope for.
If you are concerned about the latest bus and light rail service cuts at the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), the transit advocacy and watchdog group I run has scheduled a meeting tomorrow to draft a document to VTA on what should be saved from elimination.
In case you do not know, VTA’s latest service cut proposal is here:
WHEN: 6:00pm SHARP on Thursday, August 27
WHERE: Center for Training and Careers (CTC) at 749 Story Road in San Jose. The CTC building is at the corner of Story and Remillard, next to the Walmart Shopping Center and (under construction) Vietnam Town.
GETTING THERE: The 25 bus line stops near the CTC building, which is also a short walk from the 72 and 73 bus lines. Look for the “Help Save Your Bus Or Train!” signs pointing you to the CTC building. The meeting is scheduled to last no more than one (1) hour.
Plan on driving there? The CTC building is accessible from Highways 280, 680, and 101 near downtown San Jose. Also, the building entrance is wheelchair-accessible. You should be able to park at the CTC building or at the Air Systems lot in the back of the building.
Agenda for our meeting:
1. New name for our group. (again) Our new name should reflect the fact that we are independent of VTA. One idea: Transit Riders Union of Silicon Valley (TRU-SV).
2. What should we save from VTA’s service cut proposal? Some ideas: saving late-night service on the 22, as well as saving the 34 in Mountain View per an editorial and article in the Mountain View Voice last week. This will all go to an official input letter that will go out on Friday to meet the August 31 deadline for input to VTA.
Remember: decisions are made and action is taken by those who speak up and give input.
Eric,
Peter Campbell’s satire on the health care system thread has a techical problem still. You have 110 posts but there are way less than that. Even your two posts do NOT appear on there even though it showed most recent comments by you, me, and others. You might want to go back and check it out.
1. It is amusing that it is San Jose, home to Reed, whom is the darling of Brian Darby, a San Jose resident, political professional, major donor of up to a thousand dollars for Santa Clara Plays Fair (so I guess they are not volunteers), is the city that has a transperancy concerning emails. However, Gavin Newsom in San Francisco is close on the list. He has rejected all requests to disclose the emails he has exchanged with Santa Clara City Council Member (and his partner in fundraising activities) Jamie McLeod for the past two years. Wonder why?
2. Emails from a council member are public information.
3. Reed, No Lying, No Lobbying (oh, Chuck Reed, Incorporated, represents Valley Christian), No Secrecy. Will, I guess he scores a 2 on that one. (Do we all remmeber, Victor, the secret staffer, and his effort to put a state prison in San Jose?)
Interesting topic. If the Mayor and Council conduct ANY kind of City business on any type of communication device it should be considered to fall under the Brown Act.
http://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_13179926
Does this go for City Hall staffers as well? It would be great to see staffers’ texts and emails.
ABC for once we agree! That is an excellent point. I wonder if it includes staffers?
The stupidity of some drivers never ceases to amaze. Yesterday, Highway 87 was backed-up due to an accident. Rather than wait the extra few minutes to proceed, some geniuses made U-turns and left via the ON ramp. Yes, they went the wrong way on the ramp. Some brilliant subjects even BACKED-UP all the way down the ramp.
Distressing that these morons were willing to risk their lives and the lives of others so they wouldn’t have to wait a few extra minutes.
BIGOTRY OR SUPREMACY?
The Mercury News returned to its vomit today (8/23/09) in its page one hate piece denouncing “angry white men.”
The first thing to understand about this hate piece is that its principal writer is Mick Swift who appears to loathe the entire demographic of diverse white American men. It shows in every word he types, and it showed on 12/10/06 when he wrote a hate piece about Californians departing the state.
In that hate piece, he kindly referred to diverse American Latino departures from California as a “Latino diaspora,” but diverse white American departures were mocked as “white flight.” To see into Swift’s mind, just compare “Latino diaspora” with “white flight” and ask whether this is his bigotry or his supremacy speaking.
The second thing to note about Swift’s hate piece today is that he consults only one of the so-called “angry white men” who is quoted as saying, “I just feel the government is intruding in our lives.” That’s hardly an angry statement, yet it is the only evidence from the people Swift smears.
All the remainder of his article is by various jumped-up propagandists who tell him about this new breed of American men. Swift’s essay isn’t about “angry white men,” it’s about the attitudes of those who despise the diverse white American men. The only thing proven is that the really angry haters are the “experts” who are quoted.
Dale,
I read that article too and I could not agree with you more nor could I have stated the case more clearly. Thanks.
Good insight!
Mick Swift is an instance of what I call the “flying saucer leftists”. They orbit the planet in their flying saucers, look down on the “little people”, and make invidious moral pronouncements.
Metaphor aside, people such as Swift are classic cases of solipsism, i.e., people who believe they are the only intelligent mind in the universe. There is no possibility of intelligent or rational discourse with solipsists. Their reality is painted on the inside of their skulls like a neanderthal’s cave painting, and nothing is going to change their image of reality.
It has gotten very old to hear how white males are to blame for everything wrong in society. Those who say white men are racist are just as, if not more racist than those they accuse.
Dale, the Merc is nothing more than fish wrap. As for Mick Swift, never heard of the guy and, seeing that his story is in the Merc, who would believe it anyway?
Symphony Silicon Valley is giving a free series of pops concerts, starting today.
They could have done a better job with publicity, so today’s audience was pretty small. Nice for the people who were there. Hopefully it will pick up as word gets around.
Here’s the URL for full info (Cleo Laine on Tuesday!).
http://www.symphonysiliconvalley.org/concerts.php?pagecontID=183
For a positive spin I wanted to post something I experienced at the San Jose Salsa Festival. We had a booth with crafts for the kids. Everyone of the kids who participated said thanks afterwards – or if they forgot their parents asked them: “What do you say?” 100% ended up with a thank you. We hear so much about problems with kids and parents on the East Side. They deserve kudos on this one!
Dale, you need to get with the program: It’s hate speech when whites denigrate blacks/hispanics/muslims etc but it’s no problem when blacks/hispanics/muslims are hostile to white people. Understand?
Glad to see Mr. Warner protesting the latest use of newspeak, this “angry white men” stuff is nonsense.
As is always the case, when it comes to the way things are going, there are happy Americans, unhappy Americans, and millions with opinions falling somewhere in between. This truism does nothing positive for American journalism, as it has next to no value on the newsstand and is of no use in the quest to influence (read dupe) the public. But take a marketable and politically useful phrase like “angry white men,” and just watch how quickly that term, spoon-fed to the public with next to nothing in the way of evidence, will quickly make its way from the news reporters to the news spinners to the news makers holding office, where it will be used to categorize, disparage, and dismiss the concerns of huge numbers of everyday citizens.
In the attempt to stay informed good citizens are forced to digest the news as they drive the roadways, defensively. “Angry white men,” a term that no doubt accurately describes some people, becomes devoid of real meaning when used by partisan journalists to pejoratively define a segment of the population that includes women and non-whites. But what the phrase loses in meaning it picks up in political power, as it provides fellow partisans a demon against whom to rail and rally, and all but ends any chance for the public to engage in a reasoned examination of the facts. Who, after all, wants to waste time arguing with a bunch of angry white men, who we’ve learned long ago are racists?
What they want to do with “angry white men” is exactly what they did with “vigilante” when a group of American citizens banded together and formed the Minutemen, a group whose charter expressly forbids the defining component of the word vigilante, which is “taking the law into one’s own hands.” Nevertheless, thanks largely to the efforts of the media, many if not most Americans view the Minutemen as vigilantes.
Though the many smug little agitators masquerading as journalists no doubt see their manipulations as evidence of their cunning and skill, what they actually do is nothing more sophisticated than common name-calling, of the same sort that allows black trash to deride their civilized brethren as “Uncle Toms,” or one Mexican-American to berate an integrated other of “acting white,” or extremist Jews to disrespect the moderates of their tribe by branding them as “self-hating.” This name-calling is never employed as a precursor to honest dialogue, it is instead employed to avoid it. And it always comes with negative consequences.
On the issue of health care reform, something about which we are all expected to have an opinion, the disputed “reform” was intentionally designed to be so vague as to render vulnerable to smear tactics anyone who dared doubt or oppose it. That is the way things are done in Washington, where a reasoned examination of the issues benefits no one in power, be it Obama (health care) or Bush (Patriot Act). The strategy is, instead, to write a proposal so large and unwieldy as to make specific concerns easily dismissible as misunderstanding, and then use the media to demonize any “angry white men” who get in the way.
(If you’ve heard the town hall protesters demonized as “talk radio” disciples then you might be interested to know that Obama’s FCC is targeting conservative talk radio. Apparently President Change, perhaps taking a cue from the People’s Republic, intends to program our radio stations… hope he doesn’t like rap.)
FinFan,
If people stopped buying the Murkey News, and other papers like it, and stopped watching programs that spread all this garbage then perhaps one day we’ll get real journalist reporting, “Just the Facts Maam.” Until such time, I think the best place for the Murk is in my cat box as a liner.
Join us at American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter on September 15th from 9 am to 12 noon to pick-up your kit (one per agency) and attend a hands-on training session to help your organization effectively utilize this kit. The session will cover preparing your staff and clients for a pandemic, developing a plan for service continuity, how to work with the emergency management system, preparing for your community response role and activating your own pandemic plan. Please register on the eventbrite link listed below or contact Anna Swardenski at
ar**********@gm***.com
or Kelle Remmel at
ke*********@gm***.com
for more information.
DATE:Tuesday September 15, 2009
TIME:9 am to 12 noon
LOCATION: American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter 2731 North First Street, San Jose, CA 95134
RSVP: http://sccopanflu09cbos.eventbrite.com/
Great news!! All of San Jose’s pressing problems have been solved! Otherwise, why would the city council seriously be looking at banning plastic bags at grocery stores in San Jose if there were more serious issues?
I hope the city council votes “no” on the bag ban. We don’t need more government intrusion into our lives. There are already no-littering and no-dumping laws; ENFORCE THEM before passing more nuisance legislation. Everybody needs to write to their council rep and urge them to vote “no.”
So the “S.J. Silly Council” wants to impose (what is essentially)a Tax on bags on the unsuspecting citizenry of our once fair city (perfect time for a new tax) .OMG, these geniuses have finally found somthing they can do without instructions from the(Big)Labor Council or the Chamber of Commerce. This—presumably—is the best this “enlightened” group of “Greener Than Thou ” wantobes can come up with.By all means Your Sillinesses don’t apply any creative thinking here, no PR campaigns to promote recycling of bags, no enforcement of existing regs and certainly don’t place recycle bins around the city to contain the problem. Ah,but this is new San Jo and it’s the best we can hope for.
If you are concerned about the latest bus and light rail service cuts at the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), the transit advocacy and watchdog group I run has scheduled a meeting tomorrow to draft a document to VTA on what should be saved from elimination.
In case you do not know, VTA’s latest service cut proposal is here:
http://www.vta.org/servicereductions/
WHEN: 6:00pm SHARP on Thursday, August 27
WHERE: Center for Training and Careers (CTC) at 749 Story Road in San Jose. The CTC building is at the corner of Story and Remillard, next to the Walmart Shopping Center and (under construction) Vietnam Town.
GETTING THERE: The 25 bus line stops near the CTC building, which is also a short walk from the 72 and 73 bus lines. Look for the “Help Save Your Bus Or Train!” signs pointing you to the CTC building. The meeting is scheduled to last no more than one (1) hour.
Plan on driving there? The CTC building is accessible from Highways 280, 680, and 101 near downtown San Jose. Also, the building entrance is wheelchair-accessible. You should be able to park at the CTC building or at the Air Systems lot in the back of the building.
Agenda for our meeting:
1. New name for our group. (again) Our new name should reflect the fact that we are independent of VTA. One idea: Transit Riders Union of Silicon Valley (TRU-SV).
2. What should we save from VTA’s service cut proposal? Some ideas: saving late-night service on the 22, as well as saving the 34 in Mountain View per an editorial and article in the Mountain View Voice last week. This will all go to an official input letter that will go out on Friday to meet the August 31 deadline for input to VTA.
Remember: decisions are made and action is taken by those who speak up and give input.
Eric,
Peter Campbell’s satire on the health care system thread has a techical problem still. You have 110 posts but there are way less than that. Even your two posts do NOT appear on there even though it showed most recent comments by you, me, and others. You might want to go back and check it out.