But I wasn’t the only one thinking on things, it seems the Ta-Nehisi (a Chaotic Good if ever I have seen one) also spent the evening thinking about what I said. One of the reasons I like hanging at his blog is it like a conversation. So let’s talk a little bit more.

There is a strong temptation to simply say, “Tough. Get over it.” Or some such.

I get this completely. And part of the reason I get it is that I have told others to do just that, that it was only a joke, don’t take it so seriously. An earlier commenter took me to task for not being offended by “yellow” or “red”, but that misses the point. Up until that last line, the joke wasn’t on me. Now I was in with the unwashed masses and I have to tell you, I didn’t like it at all.

Part of the reason this hit me hard is because of who Rev. Lowery is. He is not one of my top-ten life heroes, but I damn sure know who he is and what he has done. And it would have so easy for him to say things differently. There have been many, many people on TNC’s blog who say that he should be given a complete pass because of who he is and what he has done. Nowhere have I suggested wholesale condemnation for the man, but I would say that who he is gives him the obligation to be more mindful of what others think of what he says, not less. Let everyone cast their minds back to Joe Biden’s description of Barack Obama as “clean” for just a minute and recall their own reactions. Anyone who said that Logorheaa Joe should have watched his phrasing has to step back and leave me alone.

Okay, for the rest of you still with me. Here’s the dead-on money quote from TNC:

Certainly, there is a sector of white folks who just want the niggers to get over it. But there is also a section of white folks who, themselves, want to be over it.

For the last ten years I’ve been trying to put things as succinctly as that. Damn you, Coates.

Yes, that is it exactly. I am tired of being, as TNC says, the stock villain. I want specific villains, like the moron who named his child Adolph Hitler, the jackasses behind the Ledbetter lawsuit defense, and assholes who drag people behind trucks. These people are no more representative of being White than bangers selling crack on the corner in Baltimore are of being Black.

I can’t find the exact comment on TNC’s blog, but someone asked why I was picking on Lowery and not Warren. This is something that hadn’t occurred to me until that point, but in retrospect is stunningly obvious: what Warren thinks doesn’t matter to me. Warren is on the wrong side of history and a religious bigot to boot. None of those things can be said of Lowery and so his opinion matters more to me. I absolutely believe that Reverend Lowery meant no harm and that he was only joking. I really do. But the joke fell flat for me.

Back what when I was in theatre, Davey Marlin-Jones was my directing mentor and one of the things he told me was that once you discover something true about yourself, you have a moral duty to change your behavior in response. So, as Craig Ferguson would say “What have you learned today, KevDog?”

I learned that while it is easy to tell someone to “get over it”, avoid the temptation. I don’t get to choose what other people are offended by and I can and will make a better attempt at understanding what hurt them.

Look, everyone knows that we fucked things up in the past. We also know that we can do better. But for crying out loud, all we want is credit for trying. Would that have been too much to ask? This was our day too. This was the country’s day.

We sold them every plane, bomb, tank, shell, and bullet that is being used on a huddled mass of civilians in a burned out ghetto. We could stop this right now, if we wanted, and political cowardice is in the way. Saying that you don’t want your citizens to live in fear is no excuse for bombing innocents on the other side to death. Israel is committing a war crime and America’s political class is stuck saying “It’s complicated”.

What is being done is wrong, immoral, criminal, whatever the fuck you want to call it. Anything else is chickenshit moral equivalence.

Let’s say that the proposed explanation of the shooting is true: that the officer thought he was using his taser and grabbed his gun instead. In the heat of the moment, I could see how that could happen.

It doesn’t matter.

There’s isn’t a civilian in the country who wouldn’t go to jail for a mistake like that and the same should be true of the police. Being afraid of the potential consequences of actions is what keeps most of us out of jail in the first place. A little of that fear wouldn’t be a bad thing for the authorities either.

But was this dude really so delusional that he didn’t think that a grand-chrissakes-jury-investigation wouldn’t be a bit of an impediment to a government job right about now?

I know, I know, the world hasn’t really changed just because my guy won the election. People are still self-aggrandizing asshats, regardless of party affiliation. Could we just keep them away from political appointments for a year or two, pretty please?

I don’t fucking get it. These are two of the biggest enablers of the last eight years of rampant executive authority and they have the wuss-ass temerity to bring “Don’t circumvent the Senate” as their best argument.

Stunningly lacking from their bullshit was a justification for revoking a treaty (ABM anyone?) on the authority of the President alone. Anyone who can find that shit in the Constitution is going to be eating dinner on me.

Yes, I am sure there are all sorts of plausible excuses Senator Reid could make, but they are just as lame as a prosecutor’s claim that it was just a coincidence that all of the Blacks were struck from the jury pool.

Back when I lived in Las Vegas, I met Hapless Harry a few times. To this day, I find it hard to believe that he has risen as far as he has. I just don’t get it.

The whole freaking thing is a money quote, so I won’t bother putting one here. But here are some representative pictures of events discussed:

Go now, come back after you’ve read it and tell me what you think.

Since wiser heads than me are going over the legalities of whether the Senate can refuse to seat Burris, let me throw my two cents in on why Burris would accept the appointment in the first place. It’s beyond stupid to think that Burris would pay off Blago (although rampant stupidity has been a hallmark of this fiasco. In the interest of comedy, I suggest the opposite is the case. Blago paid Burris to take the seat.

Think about it, since the appointment was made all of the conversation has been about Burris’ suitability and not Blago’s criminality. That’s worth a lot of coin to the helmet haired one.

Genius, I say, pure genius.