Charleston.

How much longer can we live like this?

Wow, I love this kind of stuff! But, ummmmm, 1) do they not do common sense investigations in Oklahoma like they do everywhere else? Did no one watch Fried Green Tomatoes? and, 2) holy smokes, that Camaro STILL looks sweet

Submerged Cars Found in Oklahoma May Solve Cold Cases

Mental note: do not go missing in Mayberry.

Victories!

Yes!

Minnesota and Rhode Island Hold First Same Sex Marriages

Gay marriages are now legal in over a quarter of the United States!  With new challenges to hateful legislation in Virginia, we're coming for Dixie too. The barriers are coming down, and fast. 

A little late to the party, but this is oh so good.

Stephen Colbert Spoofs 'Accidental Racist'

If you haven't heard the original 'Accidental Racist' I think that really, it's not necessary: Colbert covers the salient points. I also think David Graham at The Atlantic does a bang up job of laying down how offensive, and in many ways, damaging, this song is.

It really hits home here:

It's pretty insane to compare an inoffensive piece of headgear to a flag that represents a treasonous secession movement devoting to maintaining the practice of slavery. It's even more insane to compare jewelry to, you know, slave shackles.

The deeply offensive gold chains and iron chains thing aside, we're also talking about a flag that represents a movement devoted to maintaining the practice of slavery and comparing it to a 'do-rag' -- a piece of clothing that has been given connotations of offense by, well, racists. The flag, however, remains what it is. I get that these guys probably had good intentions, but good intentions aren't enough when it comes to learning how not to be entitled. This song does not much more than bolster white privilege and white entitlement around racism.

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing and inevitable fallout for the Muslim community (and the poor Czechs!) I've been thinking a lot about "accidental racism" and white privilege. I read two great pieces on this recently.

For anyone who struggles with the idea of white privilege, this:

The Saudi Marathon Man

Why the search, the interrogation, the dogs, the bomb squad, and the injured [Saudi Arabian] man’s name tweeted out, attached to the word “suspect”? After the bombs went off, people were running in every direction—so was the young man. Many, like him, were wounded; many of them were saved by the unflinching kindness of strangers, who carried them or stopped the bleeding with their own hands and improvised tourniquets...In the midst of that, according to a CBS News report, a bystander saw the young man running, badly hurt, rushed to him, and then “tackled him,” bringing him down. People thought he looked suspicious.

What made them suspect him? He was running—so was everyone. The police reportedly thought he smelled like explosives; his wounds might have suggested why. He said something about thinking there would be a second bomb—as there was, and often is, to target responders. If that was the reason he gave for running, it was a sensible one. He asked if anyone was dead—a question people were screaming. And he was from Saudi Arabia, which is around where the logic stops. Was it just the way he looked, or did he, in the chaos, maybe call for God with a name that someone found strange?

And this one, which while written from the perspective of a Swede, had so many hallmarks of my own tiny town American childhood that I could recall my Japanese mother's pride, shame, and anger at the hands of "accidental racists" like it was yesterday:

Sweden's Closet Racists

Being 6 years old and walking toward passport control with Dad, who has sweaty hands, who clears his throat, who fixes his hair and shines up his shoes on the backs of his knees. All the pink-colored people are let by. But our dad is stopped. And we think, maybe it was by chance, until we see the same scene repeated year after year.

Being 7 and starting school and being told about society by a dad who was terrified even then that his outsiderness would be inherited by his children. He says, “When you look like we do, you must always be a thousand times better than everyone else if you don’t want to be refused.”

I remember my mother's bewilderment -- then fear when security arrived, then shaking rage when she realized what was happening -- when a department store in my hometown wouldn't take her check; the check with her strange and difficult-to-pronounce name printed in script below my white father's, the check accompanied by a military ID ("it's from the US government, it's better than a driver's license," my non-driving mother repeated over and over, in vain). They demanded that my father be there, in person, for them to honor the check. I remember her shame and defeat, and moreover I remember my embarrassment at yet another thing that set me apart from my white peers -- an embarrassment only rivaled by my shame now in looking back on my childhood lack of perspective and support for my mother.

When someone wears a Confederate Flag in spite of the fact that it is first and foremost a symbol of whites owning human beings, and then has the nerve to tell me that foundational symbolism isn't intended -- it's only "accidentally racist" and purely on me -- privilege is the first thing that goes through my mind.

Happy Independence Day!

I just got back from a week in one of the most iconic of American of cities, New Orleans, Louisiana. First time in Dixie for this one, and it was lovely.





















































Music, stunning architecture, excellent (if rich) food, some of the best beer around, and some of the nicest folks I've encountered. Definitely shortlisted as a place I could settle, and I can't wait to go back.

I hate to be a killjoy, but OMFG.

"Starbucks' 31 Ounce "Trenta" Cup Size Set for US Debut

The new cups will be introduced Tuesday in 14 states: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, Nevada and Arizona.

Ummmm...

Most Obese US States

Sure, they're supposed to be for "iced beverages such as coffee, tea, or [sugar-filled] lemonade" but you know hella frappuccinos are going to be ladled into those things. Meh.

EEEEEEEEEE!

















Just so you don't have to embiggen if you don't want to, that poster lists, among others:

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss with T-Bone Burnett, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Prince Billy, Iron & Wine, and (omg) GOGOL BORDELLO!

All for free. With BBQ and Pimm's Cup, standard. God bless Warren Hellman.

Excited excited excited.

But WTF -- MC Hammer?

New Threat to Our Way of Life: Giant Pythons!

The giant snakes are slithering from Florida toward the Bay Area, very slowly to be sure, but inexorably. And they can strangle and eat an entire alligator.

The U.S. Geological Survey released a map Wednesday showing that the Bay Area has comfortable climatic conditions for the python. It also said the reptile, which prefers to swallow its prey in one gulp, is "highly adaptable to new environments" and cannot be stopped. (emphasis mine)

The snakes weigh up to 250 pounds and slither at a rate of 20 miles per month, according to USGS zoologist Gordon Rodda. They are not staying put. In fact, one of them has already slithered about 100 miles toward San Francisco.

...

At 20 miles a month, a determined Burmese python from Florida could arrive in San Francisco as early as August 2020.

Oh SF Chron, you rascal -- it's not even April 1st! Though I must admit it is slightly exciting to imagine pythons or anacondas or some other crazy shit in San Joaquin Valley irrigation ditches, eating coyotes and city folk. I suppose to be safe, in 2020 it'll be time to move to Denver.

I feel compelled to say yet again that this is why I don't live in Dixie -- the Australia of the United States.

Completely off the subject, but I dreamt last night that I was in a fast food restaurant where there were live kittens curled up in those flat french fry boxes like you get in a cafeteria or stadium, and then being placed under heat lamps and people were picking them up like rotisserie chickens.

must. stop. being. ill.