Archive for April, 2008

Hell Is For Children

Posted in Society on April 11th, 2008

According to ABC 7 Denver:

On Saturday, April 5, 2008, in Commerce City, CO a unwed, teenage couple, sire and dam of a 4-year-old son, had a violent altercation at the Hollywood Video at 5961 E. 64th Ave., where the mother of the boy works. The 19-year-old Joseph Manzanares, the child’s father of record, is alleged to have knocked over several displays in the video store, as well as having knocked a computer off a counter. Manzanares verbally threatened the woman who is his ex-girlfriend, including saying he was going to kill her.

OK, a young couple having a violent squabble is not really news – normally. It’s fairly normal – or at least nominal – for an estranged teenage couple who have a child together to get into these sort of arguments. What makes this particular fight both worth mentioning and viscerally horrifying is what they were fighting about.

The were fighting over which street gang their toddler should join!

Manzanares, a Latino, is a member of the Ballers – formerly called the Westside Ballers. The woman, a Black, is a member of the Crips. Each wanted the child to be claimed by their own gang.

Eugenics has a negative image in America, but I can’t help thinking that creatures like Manzanares and his “babymama” should not have been allowed to breed in the first place. Damn! Crips or Ballers, those are their progeny’s choices? Why not just shoot the kid now? It’d be kinder to him and cheaper for America.

Rogge Admits Error

Posted in 2008 Olympics on April 10th, 2008

Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), when asked if he regretted awarding the 2008 Olympics to China, admitted that it had not been a wise and a sound decision.

I’ve said that it is very easy with hindsight to criticize the decision. It’s easy to say now that this was not a wise and a sound decision.

— Jacques Rogge
IOC President

Yet Rogge defended himself by claiming that Beijing had “clearly the best bid” and offered the strong incentive of taking the Olympics to a country with 20% of the world’s total population.

This is a total load of bullshit! The only way that China had the best bid would be if criteria other than the IOC’s own Applicant City Evaluation Report was not only considered but weighed far more heavily than those official evaluations.

China’s Olympic Bid

Posted in 2008 Olympics on April 10th, 2008

I’ve performed some research on China’s bid for the 2008 Olympic Games. Below are my findings on the accuracy of Rogge claiming that had “clearly the best bid.

Applicant City Evaluation Report Results From August 2000

Beijing Toronto Paris Istanbul Osaka
General Infrastructure 4.6 7.0 8.1 4.2 7.6
Accommodation 9.9 7.8 10.0 6.2 9.7
Olympic Village 8.5 7.0 8.0 6.4 7.0
Sports Infrastructure 7.1 7.9 7.9 6.9 7.0
Transport Infrastructure 7.0 8.1 8.4 6.9 7.4
Total Score: 37.1 37.7 42.2 30.5 38.7
Average Score: 7.41 7.54 8.44 6.09 7.73

According to these scores China was only the top contender in one category – their proposed Olympic Village. Overall China had the 2nd lowest composite score (37.1). Paris achieved the highest composite score (42.2). China also had the 2nd lowest Average Score (7.41), an average of the individual scores in each IOC category, whereas Paris once again had the higest score (8.44).

With Paris not only having the highest overall and average scores, but also having earned the highest individual scores in: General Infrastructure, Accommodation, Sports Infrastructure (tied with Toronto), and Transport Infrastructure, it seems that Paris and not Beijing had “clearly the best bid.

The situation is actually worse though. The chart below details Beijing’s scores per category vs. the mean average of all the Applicant Cities.

Beijing Average Difference
General Infrastructure 4.6 6.3 (-1.7)
Accommodation 9.9 8.7 1.2
Olympic Village 8.5 7.4 1.1
Sports Infrastructure 7.1 7.4 (-0.3)
Transport Infrastructure 7.0 7.5 (-0.5)

This shows that Beijing actually scored below the average in 3 out of 5 categories. China had a mean average score 0.2 points below the composite average. It seems strange that such a score could indicate that Beijing should have been considered for the short list of Applicant Cities that the IOC would have voted on to host the 2008 Olympic Games, much less that Beijing would win that election.

Something else must have prompted the choice of Beijing as the 2008 Olympic Games’ host city. It obviously wasn’t their comparative ability to manage such an endeavor. The IOC Evaluation Committee certainly found them wanting.

MLK: Beyond Vietnam

Posted in Ethics & Morality, Politics, Society on April 9th, 2008

I believe that just about everyone in America knows of MLK’s “I Have A Dream” speech – even if very few in America actually know much of the text of that famous address of August 28, 1963. Few though remember a later and much more controversial speech by Dr. King though.

On April 8, 1967 – a year to the day before his assassination – Rev. Martin Luther King gave this speech, entitled Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, at the Riverside Church in New York.


MLK: Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence

I believe that Aaron McGruder is one of those few who knows of this speech. In episode 9, The Return Of The King, of his animated series Boondocks McGruder shows a alive and well Rev. King protesting the US’ response to 911 and being branded a “Hate American Traitor” by the media for doing so. This is almost exactly what really happened in ’67.

If you would like to read the full text of King’s Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence, it’s posted after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

Return Of The King

Posted in Humor, Politics, Society on April 4th, 2008

What would have happened if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. hadn’t died four decades ago? How would MLK Jr. have responded to our modern America?

Aaron McGruder’s animated series, The Boondocks, presents a possible series of events that might have come to pass if Dr. King had only been in a coma after the shooting, instead of dead.


Boondocks Episode 9 – Return of the King

McGruder, with his usual “no one gets out alive” style of social sarcasm, shows Dr. King’s “dream” awakening into a modern “nightmare.”