Well played, Disney.

I wonder if anyone else who watched Tinker Bell has noticed a reference to the controversial deleted Fantasia character Sunflower.



Much as I dislike the corporation's historical mishandling of race and gender issues, I am still enough of an optimist to interpret giving a dignified black female character a sunflower theme as a baby step forward for Disney. I could just be seeing a link that isn't there, but I hope it is.

Also I really dig Iridessa. She friggin' makes rainbows, plus she's hotter than all two of the other Disney animated heroines of color put together!

(Well no, I exaggerate. Nothing is hotter than two women put together, if you get my drift. AND I THINK YOU DO.)

First Eyeroll of the Day

Hahaha, oh god. All the main characters in the Avatar movie are going to be played by white people. Because there just aren't enough roles available already for young attractive caucasians.

Well done, Hollywood, well done. The internet will run on this wank for at least a year.

VICTORY

And now, the thrilling conclusion:

MODERATOR KIMERASTORM: Theres a huge difference between this post and that thrice damned website [StormFront].

Second warning: dial it down a few notches Lukadin, you are way over the line.

So the post vanished, and I got two warnings from a community moderator for disagreeing with racist terminology. And I regret my actions so much. If only I'd taken the time to get to know this poor sweet white girl on her own in a strange place, really gotten to know her, instead of jumping to the outrageous conclusion that racist language is racist... things would be different.

What she said could have turned out to be utterly harmless and not bigoted at all. Why, she may even have a black friend lurking around out there somewhere, whose mere mention might have proved me completely wrong about the OP's racial hangups.

But alas, I never thought to give this poor white girl the entirely undeserved benefit of the doubt in my rush to heap disagreement insults and foul names upon her without mercy. Oh, INTERNET! I'm so ashamed of my not particularly bullying ways!

If Mom was alive, whatever would she think of me?


EDIT: This post contains all the sarcasm I held back during the wank. Since I was cockblocked by baleetion with plenty left to say to that idiot mod, I'm giving it all to you here and now so I won't get a headache. HOT POTATO!

Why Do I Get Myself Into This Shit

Last night in a community I frequent, somebody posted an rant called Welcome To The Jungle about her three black roommates. She says she calls them the African Queens to express that they come from another culture. The LJ cut text was Affirmative INaction.

She made several references to how multicultural the OP's school was, and how she isn't at all racist (and a whole off-topic paragraph about how much she hates affirmative action for screwing white people over, but she's totally, totally not prejudiced you guys). Now, how does she know the "African Queens" got into college because of affirmative action? She just knows.

These days I try not to start shit on LJ. I want to be less negative and snarky. But dammit, I had to say something, and now I am now being slammed in the comments by people who "know where she's coming from" because they, too, have had the heartrending and painful experience of being white and surrounded by dark faces, foreign languages and funny food smells*.

As far as they're concerned, the racial insensitivity of the OP doesn't matter because hey, the Africans were bad roommates. It's fucking depressing. One person even congratulated me for judging the OP based on text. The ensuing sarcasm tags offended me, so I offered to mail her some StormFront pamphlets, and urged her to not be judgmental of them.





*I exaggerate here...OR DO I?

OMG CNN WTF

Remember that "White skin still the best, study finds" headline CNN had on its front page last year?



I am now convinced that they're doing it on purpose.

Turns out the story is about a host club. It's a romantic tearoom Disney princess fantasy with good-looking English-speaking guys. I didn't see any groveling.

And since it takes place in Japan, CNN sent their Asian newscaster to do the video report. She's Korean, but never mind that because all look same anyway. CNN uses her in every Asian puff piece, whether her role is to eat lo-mein, model a kimono or play with a robot doggie for the camera.

I don't necessarily believe that's a huge problem taken strictly on its own merit, but it's part of a larger phenomenon that I feel deserves to be acknowledged. Also, I wonder what the reporter thinks about it, if indeed she thinks about it at all beyond thye level of "WHEEEE THEY LET ME GO ON THE TELLY!"

Don't miss the bonus laff: For a limited time only, you can buy the 'groveling' headline as a T-SHIRT! Now where'd I put my wallet?

The Killing Joke

So the Scientology cult had their annual bookathon the other day, and something very interesting happened.

They sold 2,257 Scientology handbooks. Previous tallies include 33,944 in 2007 and 49,000 in 2005, according to Enturbulation.org. Dozens and dozens of orgs this year sold zero books, in what might just be the most epic fail yet.

Could this drop in cult sales possibly be the doing of a certain group of shiftless internet tough guys hanging around the Orgs with funny masks and fact sheets for the past four months? It's impossible to say for sure, but the smart money is on "hell yeah."

You know, I keep running into interwebs naysayers who think this movement is all just a big joke that has done no harm whatsoever to Scientology. Well, they're half right--it IS a joke. But a 94% drop in church book sales in one year is one doozy of a punchline, don't you think?

In conclusion, the lulz do good things for society. And it's not the only time this has happened:

Stetson Kennedy, a reporter for the short-lived lefty newspaper PM, went undercover into the Klan, learning the secret passwords and countersigns used by the Grand Dragon "Doc" Green's vicious Klavern No. 1 of Atlanta. For sport, Kennedy passed on the info to writers of the Superman radio show about that comic-book character whom Wade calls "the ultimate antifacist."

-From here.

That incident is generally blamed/thanked for dragging the Klan out of the shadows of respectability and turning it into a freakshow. Membership plunged and, some say, never recovered.

Scientology is nowhere near as bad as the Klan, of course. Yet. Any society, no matter how marginal, whose end goals for our planet include the forced elimination of the physically and mentally disabled, not to mention the eradication of several races it just plain doesn't like, needs to be squished and squished hard, on sheer principle, and as quickly as possible so it doesn't spread.

If all it takes to do that is a nice hard belly-laugh at Miscavige's expense, that's a good thing and I'm grateful for it.

“MANY MONTHS AGO THIS MAY
A MESSAGE WAS GIVEN TO THIS PLACE.

“THE INTERNET HATE MACHINE
STRUCK THE BLOW
THAT BLEW THE BULL
OF LRH AWAY.

“BUT ORGS
WHO WOULD OPPRESS
HAVE LABORED HARD BEHIND
THEIR WALL OF FAIL UNSOUND.

“FOR IF ALL PRECLEARS
COULD GO FREE
WHO THEN COULD DAVID SMACK AROUND?

“YOU HAVE SOME LULZ TO FORWARD ON
THE WORK THAT WAS BEGUN
AND LIKE THE BANNER OF LONGCAT
DRAW OUT THE PATH WE WON.

“EACH RAID THAT FLOWS BEHIND US FINDS
LESS FORCE IN OSA
THAT MET US WHINING "OH PLEASE STOP,
OH KINDLY GO AWAY."

“OH YES, WE’LL WIN FOR MANKIND YET
AND RESTORE THEIR MENTAL HEALTH
WHY LET DAVE WIN?
WHEN HE CAN LOSE
HIS CAKE AND ALL HIS WEALTH?"

“IT’S UP TO YOU
TO SEE THE MIDGET
STUMBLE ALL THE WAY.

“DO ALL YOU CAN
MY FRIENDS TO SEE
THAT XENU WINS THE DAY.”

LOVE, MARK

Katrina, Katrina

Hey, kids! Not feeling bitter enough about the epic shitstorm of monumental incompetence and racism that was the federal government's response to (and responsibility for) Hurricane Katrina? Has two years dulled your anger and outrage?

This will help.