Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas 2011

I became aware of these two videos within 24 hours of each other, and they both make me smile...

At first I envisioned some kinda east coast <--> west coast chick singin' let it all hang out goofy Christmas song video rivalry, like them rappers used to have... (That is what them rappers used to have, yes?!?)

But the fact is, I'd much rather see 'em workin' together, sometime, somewhere... I think they're both phenomenal talents, and I urge anyone unfamiliar to get to know these performers better... (Obviously, this isn't their best work, but for what they are, these videos are pretty great...)


East Coast: Antigone Rising




West Coast: Francesca Valle



For more info:
Antigone Rising
Francesca Valle


Merry happy, everyone... Celebrate, and be joyous.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

X-Post: Dishonest Donald Douglas Lash-Out/Lie of the Day for Wednesday, December 14, 2011

In the post American Power: Orange County Chick-fil-A Cashier Fired for Racist 'Ching' and 'Chong' Receipts, a post about a cashier at a CA fast food place who typed "Ching" or "Chong" into the name slot on two occasions when she had an Asian customer, Dishonest Donald Douglas tries to gratuitously shoehorn my name into the post and then tell lies about me by adding the following:
I can't believe people like that. But you have to stand up against that kind of racism and bigotry. Unfortunately, progressive racism of the same stripe is pretty common online. I discussed it at Zilla's in the comments regarding the disgusting bigotry of Walter James "Racist" Casper III.
To review, this is what Dishonest Don alleged in that comment section regarding my supposed racism:
Repsac is also racist. He's stated previously that he first identifies people by race or ethnic background then treats them (segregates them) accordingly. I ---- we ---- treat people as individuals with dignity.
Of course he provides no link or quote, leaving folks to either trust him just on his word (which as this blog has repeatedly shown by example and citation, isn't worth shit), or investigate for themselves what the fuck he may be talking (which is to say, lying) about...

This was my response at the time:
(I think what Dishonest Don was/is crying "raaaaacist" about in the comment cited above is the situation discussed/linked to at #3. Unless/until Dishonest Donald Douglas is willing to more specifically pinpoint the conversation he's lying about, I have to assume it's that one...):
-------
* As near as I can figure it, Donald's racism charge, first launched after I called him out for bigoted posts like these, amounts to the following:

1) I didn't believe a comment made about Donald Douglas' celtic-sounding name and "swarthy" complexion was racist...

2) I called a black man a clown because I disagreed with something he said...

and

3) I said that it is not racist to mention--or even talk about--race... ...and as an example, said that it would not be racist for another professor to describe Dr. Douglas as "a grey-haired black man wearing a blue suit with a red tie, who was likely to be dining in the south quad cafeteria at this hour" to a new student or professor who had never met the man. Apparently, taking any notice of skin color or other "racial" feature is evidence that one judges people based on their ethnic or racial background. (And lest there be any confusion, this was a part of Donald's comment in reply: "...you welcome people who see me first as a black man and not a man." Yeah... Really.)
---

Time since Dishonest Don's previous lash-out/lie: 17 hours

(Poor Donald couldn't even make it a whole day without lashing out with some kinda lie... It's almost like he's flirting with me... (If I had pigtails, Dishonest Donald Douglas would be sticking them in the inkwell... ...and I gotta say, it's getting really creepy that he cannot seem to control himself...)
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An American Nihilist x-post

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

In Reply: Lowes, Kayak: You shoulda just ignored the bigots, guys... (All-American Muslim)

In reply to: Another Advertiser Pulls Out Of “All-American Muslim” - Alan Colmes' Liberaland

It looks to me like Kayak (along with the rest of the businesses who pulled their advertising) got played for fools by this bigoted group in FL. They would've been wise to just ignore them and make their decisions based on, well, business--and perhaps, assuming Mr Birge is telling the truth (I have my doubts), even gone so far as to delay a planned ad pullout, so as not to even appear to be caving to bigotry.

Now they're damned by one side or the other, no matter what they do or don't do next. Whether they resume advertising or not (or write simpering excuse-laden explanations or not) either the bigots or a big swath of the rest of America is going to watch and remember what they did and do, and be unhappy with whatever decisions they make.

It was a classic rightwing media/FoxNews ploy... Speculate about and otherwise talk up any/all possible controversy about a given issue, and then dutifully report that the issue has become "controversial," with the not-so-subtle suggestion that mainstream Americans (and politicians, and companies) might want to avoid getting too involved with this "hot-button, third rail, controversial" issue.

Sadly for these companies who pulled their ads, the ratings for the show will likely go up, temporarily at least, because of the "controversy," meaning more eyeballs on the ads of companies that stuck it out, while the ones who pulled their ads get labelled as bigots and as lacking backbone, whether fairly or unfairly. This little nothing show that not a whole lot of people were watching in the first place is now a "controversial" wedge issue for a whole lotta folks.

Shoulda just ignored the bigots, guys... Perhaps next time...
---
Posted December 14th, 2011 at 15:50

In Reply: "Bad behavior by the two Muslim students doesn't excuse Paul Derengowski's own bad behavior."

In reply to the following comment at the post Professor resigns after Muslim students disrupt class - Inside Higher Ed:
Gsmith says
"His Website is horrendous--slanted mischaracterizations of atheists and others that makes no attempt to be neutral or respectful to different viewpoints. However, it appears that the instructor is in the right as to the classroom incident. If he was only reading from the Koran, then the students had no right to disrupt his class. They should have handled it differently."
---

But shouldn't the former professor have handled it differently, too? Reports suggest that these two students were disruptive for an HOUR... What kind of professor loses control of his class for an HOUR, without doing something about it? (Ask the disruptive students to leave the class, cancel the class and dismiss everyone, call campus security and have the disruptive students removed, ..., ...) It seems to me his classroom management skills were lacking, to say the least.

And after having been to his website and reading his L-O-N-G "Why I quit" resignation post in particular, I have serious questions about his professional and personal ethics, as well. It's a vindictive, bigoted, self-serving "name and shame" attack on the two Muslim students and on his former college administrators that suggests the man lacks the temperament needed to work and play well with others in an educational setting. Even now, he's recruiting "anti-Jihad" bloggers and others who agree with him religiously or politically to write or call TCC administrators up and down the chain in support of him and his cause, posting a list of administration names, addresses and phone numbers...

Based on the accounts I've read, the two Muslim students did behave poorly, both in class and subsequently. But I don't believe that their behavior mitigates or absolves Mr. Derengowski of his own behaviors and attitudes after the fact.

Posted 12/14/2011 01:02 PM

X-Post: Dishonest Donald Douglas Lash-Out/Lie of the Day for Tuesday, December 13, 2011

In the post American Power: Occupy Wall Street to Attend Capitol Hill Meeting Chaired by Congressional Progressive Caucus, Dishonest Donald Douglas gratuitously adds the following:

Real revolutionary communists to meet with real congressional communists, despite the lies of their progressive enablers. See: "Communist REPSAC = CASPER Takes Umbrage?"
While the text contained in Dishonest Don's screengrab at his link pretty much exposes Donald's lie all by itself, I also responded when he first made the post... ...last February. (This was during his "communist as meaningless pseudo-political epithet of the month" phase, and thus everyone and everything he disagreed with became "Communist." Like most of his meaningless epithets, post-"nihilist," it didn't last long...)

The gist was (and is, in this current post, as well) Donald finds a picture or mention of 5-10 individuals representing the American Communist Party or some similar group handing out fliers or whatever at a large liberal rally or protest, and tries to convince folks that their presence conclusively proves everyone at the rally is a closet Marxist or Stalinist.

Time since Dishonest Donald Douglas' previous lash-out/lie: 52 hours
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An American Nihilist x-post

In Reply: "I believe in religious freedom, even for faiths that I don't personally subscribe to..." (Paul Derengowski)

In reply to the following comment at the post TCC professor's lecture on Islam stirs controversy - Star-Telegram:

Gromet sez:
Would you please tell us which muslim countries allow Christian churches, Jewish temples, Hindu temples, Buddhist temples, Sheik places of worship, or any places of worship other than Islam to be built? Sure there are churches in Lebanon, but they have to have their own militias to protect them, and the new Muslim Brotherhood rulers in Egypt are starting to burn the Coptic churches there (which have existed for hundreds of years before there was an Islam.)
Tell me specifically where I am wrong in the statements above - one-by-one.......
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Pretty sure I answered your question before you ever asked it there, Gromet... Those countries generally do not allow other faiths to be practiced, and the leaders responsible for that are discriminatory bigots...

...But it seems to me that folks fighting against mosques here in this country--or boycotting businesses that advertise during a reality show depicting actual American Muslims behaving pretty normally, and decidedly NOT like terrorists or terrorist sympathizers--are kinda following in their footsteps, ideologically speaking. (No, there are no death sentences, and buildings aren't burning down, but that's a matter of degree, not intent.)

I live here in America, and I believe in religious freedom, even for faiths that I don't personally subscribe to... ...and as an American, I expect everyone else here to stand for the same American freedoms that I do... I fail to see what's unclear about that.
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Posted 12/14/2011, 02:34 AM

In Reply: "Our diversity--religious and otherwise--is one of our great strengths..." (Paul Derengowski)

Revised and extended, in reply to the following comments at the post TCC professor's lecture on Islam stirs controversy

Gromet sez:
Can one build a church in a muslim country? NO!!! Upon penalty of death.
But, how many mosques are in D/FW - quite a few.
Now who's the BIGOT???
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PamT sez:
You might want to rethink that comment. Next to Christianity - Islam is the next largest religion. So yes - we are in a Muslim country - they live here just like you and I.
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All this great American religious freedom... ...and some seem to want us to leave those freedoms behind, in the name of "treating them like they treat us," or some fool thing, as though fairness means sinking to their level, rather than demanding that they raise to ours...

We are not a Muslim country, or a Christian country, or any other religious kinda country. Our diversity--religious and otherwise--is one of our great strengths...

(This was supposed to be in reply to PamT's 12/13/11, 10:36pm comment in the "...but there are no churches in Arab lands" thread... Dang Disquis / iPad interface keeps divorcing my reply comments from the threads they belong in...)

But as long as I'm editing in, "the BIGOT," Gromet, is anyone who judges every member of a given group as one (generally based on the behavior of the worst members of the group), rather than judging the individual on his/her own merits. Those who do not allow the building of churches in predominantly Muslim countries do qualify. But the people doing that are the leaders, not every single Muslim, in or out of the country in question. The bigotry of former professor Derengowski doesn't stain every Christian, either... ...and, it wasn't Muslim students misbehaving in his class -- or it was, but they weren't misbehaving because they were Muslims, but because they were rude kids who were offended by some of what Mr. Derengowski was saying about their faith, and reacted poorly.
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Posted 12/14/2011, 12:36 AM

Monday, December 12, 2011

X-Post: Another Day, Another Bullshit Gratuitous Mention By Dishonest Donald Douglas

In a post primarily discussing a college professor's run-in with two Muslim students that resulted in the professor's resignation, Dishonest Don appended the following:
"No doubt Walter James "Occupy" Casper III would be down with that "female Muslim student." The dude called for an investigation of Pamela Geller and berates conservative counter-jihad bloggers as racist. For pro-terror progressives like Racist Repsac3, the professor had it coming and he obviously deserved to be out on his ass, pounding the pavement for a job."

Why?

Who the fuck knows...

As I've said before, if you want to know what professor Douglas is up to, the best way is often to watch what he accuses others of doing. The man claims I'm obsessed with him... ...and yet he won't stop lashing out with these nonsensical, counterfactual, gratuitous mentions in posts about other subjects, regardless of whether I write about him--or the subject in question--or not. His fact free suppositions about what he thinks I might believe or maybe would do as regards the main subject of these posts (the strand of thread he uses to drag me into his posts and then lash out at me for whatever dastardly belief or action he's invented for me in a given situation) are not supported by anything but his own fevered, hateful imagination. In most cases I've never even discussed the topic at hand, and even when I have, Donald doesn't quote me, making it far easier to put his words and ideas in my mouth and then attack his made-up bullshit version of what "I" actually said...

I get it... Dishonest Don doesn't like me... Of all the people he's fought with over the last several years, I'm obviously the one he most hates, for reasons known only to Donald himself... ...but dragging me into all these posts based solely on what he guesses I might say or believe about the subject at hand does little more than make ol' Don look pretty desperate to lash out at me. And if he really is so desperate that he's willing to throw these wild drunken punches at me as these bullshit "W James would no doubt..." posts make him seem, I actually feel kinda sorry for the guy...
---

Added, after doing a bit more reading:

As for the subject of the post itself--the resignation of the professor--there seems to be more to the story than Dishonest Donald Douglas was willing to offer.

The professor's blog, Christian Apologetics Project--listed on the syllabus for the class in question--lists Islam, Mormonism, and Jehovah's Witnesses as cults rather than as religions, and reads a whole lot like the average Pamela Geller screed where Islam is concerned. (And for the record, yes, I do believe that Pam Geller is a bigot. The only Muslims she seems to approve of or in any way support are former Muslims or dead ones. She opposes Muslim religious services for US soldiers on military bases, and even at the Pentagon.

I'm fine with folks opposed to the strain of Islam that creates and feeds terrorism... ...but I don't believe that every Muslim is a potential terrorist any more than I believe every person practicing any other religion is... There are millions of Muslims throughout the world, and the vast majority never had and never will have a single "terrorist" thought. Those who fight against mosques, footbaths, religious services, etc, strictly because Muslims will use them are bigots. Pamela Geller--and yes, some of her "anti-Jihad" blogging followers and fellow travelers too--are indeed bigoted against all Muslims (except the ones who converted and the ones who are dead, of course.)

This news story (non-Fox, not Con blogger) paint a more nuanced picture of the situation: TCC Disputes That Professor Was Forced Out For His Beliefs - CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

I don't know what actually happened... (That's what I was trying to determine by googling the story.) But even reading Professor Derengowski's account, it sounds like he's got piss-poor classroom management skills, although--if his account is to be believed--the Muslim students behaved badly, no matter their complaint.

On the other hand, if the professor was teaching the kind of things posted on his website--and again, note that he listed his blog as a resource on the class syllabus, making it more than just his personal opinions on his personal blog--I could see where Muslim students (and Mormon students, and Jehovah's Witness students, and atheist students, too) would have a legitimate complaint against him. And according to the news story above anyway, at least one Muslim student (seemingly not one of the ones who caused the disturbance in class, though the article could be more clear on that point) says he was.

Contrary to Dishonest Don's wild guess, I don't know enough about the story to venture much of an opinion on the whole of the story. Here's what I can say:

I think the professor was right to report the student's threat. One cannot be too careful.

I think the students were right to report what they believed to be classroom bias to college administrators. The e-mail the student sent around was more than likely over the top and inappropriate, though I'd have to know what it actually said to really judge--and no, I'm not willing to take the professor's characterization of it as Gospel truth. I have no problem with anyone on either side speaking out and pleading their case, and to whatever extent the e-mail was an attempt to persuade the other students in the class that Professor Derengowski was teaching in a biased manner, I don't have much of a problem with it... ...just as I don't have a problem with Professor Derengowski telling his side of the story on his blog, essentially trying to persuade others that he was in the right...

And perhaps it is naive of me, but I find it hard to believe that the administrators of the college were biased against him, too. I'm not saying they were right to reprimand him or require that he change how he teaches the course... but I am saying that unlike me (or Dishonest Don, for that matter), they had all the facts before them, and more than likely made a fair and judicious decision based on what they saw and heard.

I generally trust the officials we put in place to judge such things, and believe that even when they do get it wrong, that wrong will be set right further up the chain. I hope the campus police investigated the student's threat, evaluated the seriousness of it, and acted accordingly. The same goes for the college administrators who looked into the student's complaints of bias by Professor Derengowski. I don't know that they were right, but barring evidence to the contrary, I trust that they were, because that is their job. If they were wrong, I hope it gets fixed, somehow. (The fact that the professor voluntarily resigned might make that more difficult, however...)

In the end, Professor Derengowski felt he was being treated poorly and chose to leave... ...but from what I can tell based on what little evidence is available, that wasn't the fault of these Muslim students or some so-called "Terroristic Act of Jihad" (a designation which itself ought to tell the reader something about the professor making the claim--no matter how vehement, arguing with a professor in class, lodging a complaint with his superiors, or even circulating any kind of fact sheet, diatribe, or petition against him via e-mail, are hardly "terrorist" acts); Professor Derengowski made that choice all on his own.
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Another Update: The more I read, the more I see why our Dr Douglas feels an affinity for Professor Derengowski. Those interested need only follow this link to read the professor's epic 13 page ranting diatribe against the two students who complained about him, in his own words. It is unprofessional, unethical, personally motivated holier-than-thou pompous clap-trap of exactly the sort our Dishonest Don regularly engages in when attacking others on his own blog. (Luckily, Donald has so far managed to keep himself from attacking his own students... ...though if he felt himself backed into a corner as a result of a complaint against him, is there anyone who doubts he would, the same way he's attacked those bloggers who've had the temerity to disagree with him?) A professor who would write a post like this, no matter the reason, almost certainly lacks the temperament and professional ethics required to teach. (And if Dr. Douglas keeps spewing the hate for all who disagree with him the way he has been, it'll likely be just a matter of time for him, as well...) YMMV...

According to Professor Derengowski:
1) the student quoted in the CBS article above was one of the two who lodged the complaint against him, and
2) he quotes portions of the text of the e-mail the female student sent to her classmates in his 13 page diatribe--though, again a lot like Dr. Douglas, he edits it, and intentionally hides her supporting links. (In his post, the quotes are interlaced with his own responses to them, some of which are pretty far "out there..." If you want to get a picture of who Dr. Douglas is defending, I urge you to follow the link (the same one I added above) and read it all, in context.) Judge for yourselves:
“Good morning classmates…
"I am Emailing you all some information that you might find interesting, relating to our World of Religions teacher."
"After the other day in class, I couldn’t help but feel that he was teaching my religion of Islam in such a hatred and bias way…"
"And to my findings, he was…”
This man has been teaching our class in his point of view, in the way that he thinks it should be…”
“He is not being informative about religions, but rather creating a religious intolerance.”
“This is a philosophy class, he is supposed to be opening our minds and getting us to understand why other people believe certain things…”
“I’m sure some of you have felt that he does slander other religions’ beliefs and speaks ill of some as well.”
“I knew me and Muhammad were not crazy speaking up against how he was teaching.”
“It wasn’t the information and facts we were debating against so much, he was teaching it all wrong, and taking so many things out of context, focusing on the ugly things instead of teaching the actual religion itself…”
“I will let you all read what our teacher has written about Islam and Mormonism, the two religions he continues to speak out against in our class.”
"I will not be attending this man’s class again, and I will be showing the dean of our school."
"By the way… He gave us both zero’s on our quizzes we fairly earned 6/6 on that day in class, and an absence because we left a few minutes early…"
"We weren’t going to sit there any longer and allow him to slander our beliefs the way he was that day…"
"Enjoy:”
---

Links:
* American Power: Professor Paul Derengowski Resigns from Tarrant County College After Muslim Students Launch 'Terroristic Act of Jihad'
* Christian Apologetics Project
* TCC Disputes That Professor Was Forced Out For His Beliefs - CBS Dallas / Fort Worth
* Tell Them the Truth
* Donald Douglas: "Conservatives have proudly exhibited bigotry against Muslim prayer before"
* What'd I Say?: In Reply: There were Muslims involved; Of COURSE Geller and Spencer Objected...

* Wingnuts and Moonbats: Investigate Pamela Geller...

* Jihad Against Tarrant County College Professor Paul Derengowski - Atlas Shrugs
* Jihad Against Tarrant County College Professor Paul Derengowski�|�Conservatives for America
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An American Nihilist x-post

Thursday, December 08, 2011

X-Post: That Dishonest Donald Douglas Has To Lie About The Folks He Hates Should Tell You All You Need To Know About Who He Is

When they have to lie about what you say or stand for, they've already lost the fight. You know it, I know it, and when it comes right down to it, they know it too...

"That is the complete rejection of values, decency, restraint and traditionalism. And that's the core of the Occupy Wall Street societal agenda. No gender recognition. Pairing sexually with whomever it feels right and good, damn world historical norms of propriety and protection of the most vulnerable. As we saw in New York, women were unsafe at the Zuccotti Park encampment. They had to self-segregate to protect themselves against being raped. But that's all part of the movement, and no doubt man-boy love and polygamy as well, and only God knows what else. This is of course the end stage of the progressive agenda. This is what creepy radical leftists like Walter James Casper III endorse when they pump out brainless tweets exhorting commies, druggies, and hippies to "Occupy wherever you are." It's criminal. It's nihilist. It's deathly."
Donald--who says he supports full rights for gay Americans (as long as they don't act "gay," or try to use those rights to legally marry in the eyes of the state...or God forbid, knit)--equates homosexuals and those who believe that the government shouldn't treat them any differently than straight folks, with pedophilia and support for man-boy love--(no bigotry there, right?), then--finding some out there website that questions societal norms, and also supports the Occupy movement (and note what I said: THEY support Occupy; there is ZERO indication that Occupy supports THEM, except in Dr. Douglas' fevered imagination)--equates his straw man fake gay/pedophilia rights movement with the Occupy movement, and damns everyone to Hell based on connections he made up out of whole cloth.

In every movement, there are fringe players and groups who want to piggyback on the whole to advance their own causes. The Tea Party wasn't racist, but there were racist players associated with it. Folks opposed to abortion are overwhelmingly good people who just believe something different than I do... ...but there are folks who were willing to murder doctors and patients and blow up buildings in support of their cause. The people at Dishonest Donald Douglas' "Free Society" website say they support the Occupy movement, and maybe they do--but they no more speak for the movement than Donald speaks for mainstream conservatives. Generalizing about the whole of a movement by pointing to the fringe hangers on is dishonest... ...and everyone, including Donald, damned well knows it.

And by this point it should go without saying that the reason Donald doesn't actually show that his accusations about me have any merit at all--say, with quotes, links, or citations--is because he cannot. As is so often the case, Donald's arguments against me require him to make shit up, and then attack his own lies. The fact of the matter is, for all his bluster and bullshit, the only one talking about man-boy love or pedophilia is Donald Douglas... ...and perhaps folks ought to be asking themselves why...)

When they have to lie about what you say and stand for, they've already lost.

By that standard, dishonest Donald Douglas lost long, long ago.
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While folks like Donald Douglas seem eager to hide what those he disagrees with have to say by moderating his comment sections for content and limiting the number of verbatim quotes, citations, and links he uses when blogging, I want nothing more than to give folks every opportunity to read exactly what Dr. Douglas has to say, in all of it's contextual glory, and thus will quote and link to his exact words as often as I can...

Everyone please, go look at Donald Douglas, and particularly at the post(s) in question. Read everything he has to say. Weigh his arguments--as well as the arguments of those who disagree with him, of course--judge as fairly as your conscience allows you to, and come to your own conclusions.

I ask for nothing more.

And I ask for nothing less.
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An American Nihilist x-post

Nerd Score (Do nerds score?)