random news

[thisficklemob]

There's been a double homicide-suicide at a college in Louisiana. If this isn't the first school shooting perpetrated by a woman, it's one of very few.

Peak oil will lead to food shortages. Government (US and EU) subsidizing of biofuels will exacerbate the problem. (And what to say about gas rising to $10-15/gallon except Do Not Want

Comments

[asaresquares]

The vagueness still bothers me, though. Hope and change is starting to haunt me. I'm having "YES WE CAAAN!!!" nightmares. Like, optimism is great and all, but seriously? =[ (Not to knock Obama! Just, y'know...really?)

Al Gore needs to have a MAJOR role in the next Admin, and his job needs to be 100% about the environment, and very, very powerful. He's one of the only politicians I trust to save Mommy Earth at this point, and the more I become a hippie, the more important that becomes to me. =\

[thisficklemob]

i had that darn music video in my head during Super Tuesday, and I was like, "self, having a song stuck in your head is not a valid reason to pick a candidate."

To me, the environment thing doesn't even seem like a hippie thing anymore -- I'm just like, hi, I'm a human, I hope to be alive for decades yet and have food, water, and heat for that time, so can we PLZ GET GOING on this kthx.

[delux_vivens]

Melissa Harris Lacewell has talked about how race influences Obama's communication in detail.

http://melissaharrislacewell.com/Blog/?p=17

[thisficklemob]

Fascinating. Especially this bit:

As I watch Obama and Clinton I am convinced that I am seeing one of the wages of whiteness in action: it is easier to talk across gender difference than to speak across the racial divide. Americans share almost no common vocabulary across race. As a public opinion researcher, I consistently find that the greatest perceptual, cognitive and emotional gaps are between the races. We just don’t see our world, think about our world, or feel about our world in similar ways.
I have no cause to dispute that, but I wonder about the causes. Could it be because most men and women talk across gender lines every day of their lives, and the majority of multi-person households include males and females, but blacks and whites are still geographically/socially isolated from one another in many places in this country? (Also, wasn't Obama largely raised by his white mother/grandparents? If there are two languages/frameworks operant, wouldn't he be likely to be, well, bilingual

[delux_vivens]

Could it be because most men and women talk across gender lines every day of their lives, and the majority of multi-person households include males and females, but blacks and whites are still geographically/socially isolated from one another in many places in this country?

Blacks and whites are socially isolated form each other even when they arent geographically isolated.

(Also, wasn't Obama largely raised by his white mother/grandparents? If there are two languages/frameworks operant, wouldn't he be likely to be, well, bilingual?)

This question is so... disturbing... all I can do is point you to the concept of code switching and leave it at that.

[thisficklemob]

Blacks and whites are socially isolated form each other even when they arent geographically isolated.

True. I wrote both because in some places the social isolation is reinforced by geographic isolation, including Iowa where 2.5% of the population is black New Hampshire, where 1.05% of the population is black.

This question is so... disturbing... all I can do is point you to the concept of code switching and leave it at that.

I apologize; I realize that was glib and simplistic. Once I get ahold of an analogy, I can carry it too far.

*goes to read more about Code-switching*