Recently, I was accused by a blog commenter of using a racial slur. Due to a pattern of misstating my meaning, I had said that he, "may need more ESL classes". Others pointed out that I might be unaware this can be a racial slur. Mr. Z felt I must be aware of his ethnic background due to his screen name.  His screen name could be of Cajun or other native born American, South or Central American, Mexican, Spanish, Italian, French, French Canadian, origin, or he may have picked it because he liked it. I didn't consider it anything other than a pseudonym.  The result was that I was "taken to the woodshed", the debate was derailed, and I was told I should educate myself about possible slurs against Hispanics. This diary is the result of my "continuing education." Here are a couple of other situations involving slurs and cultures/races.

If I was sensitive about slurs, my Dutch wife and I might not be married now. Why? Early in our relationship, we were parting for a few hours and she said, "Bye bye, schat." The Dutch pronunciation of the word "schat" sounds, to an American ear, very much like "slut." Was her comment insensitive? Of course not, she had no reason to connect the words in two different languages. Could it be taken as a slur? Sure, though clearly not a racial or ethnic one.

drational's diary, Karl Rove is Tricking You Again asserts a "schism" is being generated in the Democratic party through trickery:

The FISA update was specifically pushed before the Congressional Summer Recess to generate exactly the reaction it has:

  1.  Remove Pressure from the Administration on purely domestic spying.

  2.  Fracture the Democratic Party, to create an issue of "more importance" to the progressives previously focusing their anger on the Administration.

... if you have bought into the current Democratic left-center schism, you are being manipulated by shrewd political players.  You are a part of a media/issue framing exercise specifically designed to distract attention away from Administration illegality.

Up to a point, I agree with what drational says. But, the trick is not in shining the spotlight on a "schism within the Democratic party," because there is no such schism. Wrong, you say? I disagree, and I'll tell you why below the fold.

I know there are a ton of diaries on this subject. I feel there is a "melding point" where they all meet. It could/should be effective with the Democratic Party and Mass Media. I've commented several times, but now my thoughts have gotten to diary strength. So, please, bear with me. First a little personal story.

Cross-posted at Eclectic Lite.

It looks like some in the Network business just aren't going to give up to network neutrality without at fight. Check this out.

Comcast is shutting off user's broadband service for one year due to excessive bandwidth usage. According to the PhysOrg.com article:

Carreiro said he received a message from a Comcast Security Assurance representative in December, who warned him that he was hogging too much of the company's bandwidth and needed to cut down. When Carreiro contacted customer service about the call, they had no idea what he was talking about and suggested it was a prank phone call. Unconvinced, Carreiro contacted Comcast several more times, but was again told there was no problem.

A month later, he woke up to a dead Internet connection. Customer service directed him to the Security Assurance division, which Carreiro said informed him he would now be without service for one year.

Carreiro has switched to Qwest's DSL service with no further problems.

It's just another illustration of the misplaced priorities of our administration.

At PhysOrg.com they've posted this article.

Congress in 2005 asked NASA to come up with a plan to track most killer asteroids and propose how to deflect the potentially catastrophic ones.

Well, they've done it, but ...

"We know what to do, we just don't have the money," said Simon "Pete" Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center.

Over the next day or so, I'm planning to fax this to EVERY member of Congress.

Any suggestions before I fire up the fax?

I'll incorporate changes and update as required.

Graphic below the fold.

Cosmic Variance has a wonderful post called The Cult of Genius. It struck me that many diarists here, are so well-informed and articulate that it can be intimidating for those of us less gifted or informed (or both). While reading the article, just replace "physicist" with "political thinker." It applies equally well to physicists and political pundits (on DKos or elsewhere)>

Julianne, the poster, discusses the role of "genius" on physicists. Feynman, Einstein and Hawkins long shadows can have negative effects on less lofty intellects.

There are some worthwhile pointers for how to guide the egos of "smart" children and insights into our personal reactions to our own, sometimes, mundane performance.

I’m going back to school to get a degree in Mass Media Stenography (MMS). I’ll be attending G.I.U. (Global Ideologies University).

Inspired G.I.U. mission statement:

"Each graduate is fully competent to focus on rationales which maximize global uniformity and convincingly communicate such reasoning to people and organizations which doom our world to individualized thoughts and actions."

My goals: Once I graduate, I hope to acquire employment with Fox News or some other global, balanced news organization.

My intent is to aid in accurate dissemination of the thought of powerful people who demonstrate societal benefits accrued by concentration of power and wealth. Through study and hard work, I intend to perfect the art of recording the thoughts of such people without resorting to the distortions inherent in analysis or investigation.

I've been building an MS Excel data file of information on the 110th Congress.

This was posted in a diary last night, but it probably scrolled off the list before many people saw it. So I'll post it again this morning, hoping for better results.

The file includes:

• Senators and Representatives: first, middle, last names w/suffix
• Party, State and district (if applicable)
• D.C. FAX, Phone, and address
• A special FAX number field for MS Outlook to use for fax merges
• email address (if applicable) and/or contact URL (if applicable)
• A separate spreadsheet for import directly into MS Outlook
• A General Description sheet.

I've been building a MS Excel data file of information on the 110th Congress. It includes:

• Senators and Representatives: first, middle, last names w/suffix
• Party, State and district (if applicable)
• D.C. FAX, Phone, and address
• A special FAX number field for MS Outlook to use for fax merges
• email address (if applicable) and/or contact URL (if applicable)
• A separate spreadsheet for import directly into MS Outlook
• A General Description sheet.

After a lot of tinkering, I have it mostly ready. You can import one of the spreadsheets directly into MS Outlook. Then, you can produce email/fax merge documents in MS Word.

Warning: getting the fax merge to work well is sort of a pain and will probably be different for each fax installation. I don't even try to address that issue so you'll have to work it out for your particular situation.

Download it and let me know if it helps.

It's wonderful that you are so concerned about protecting Democratic hopes for the '08 elections.

But, how many added people have to die to preserve those hopes? Do you intend to provide the shoulder for the families of the dead to cry on? Are you going to replace the income lost to the families of the added dead caused by your desire to keep Democrats in power? Are you going to visit the graves with flowers and grieve for the husbands, wives, sons and daughters?

Are these harsh questions? You betcha! I was in attendance for the last national "Stop the War" drama. Mrs. Pelosi, I was in your San Francisco in 1965-1970. Mrs. Pelosi, I'll remind you of what happened then because neither party was listening to The People ... below the fold.

According to Yahoo/Reuters the Pentagon's has ordered an investigation of potential prisoner abuses at Guantanamo.

The Marine's sworn statement was released by lawyers for detainees last week. The inspector general's office, which serves as the Pentagon's internal watchdog agency, received the Marine's affidavit and letter by e-mail on Tuesday, the spokesman said.
The case was referred to Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which is responsible for the prison at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. No deadline has been set for the investigation's conclusion, the spokesman said.

Sorry for the short diary, but it seems important IMHO. It is a short article to begin with.

Update(s) below.

The diary Marine Letter and it's associated link made me so angry that I commented then felt I should make it a diary.

My comments are below the fold, and yes, I'm a bit emotional

I wanted to graduate from a "name" school. My dad was an executive in a California life insurance company in the mid 1960s. Ronald Reagan (not yet the CA governor) was on the Board of Directors. Also, one of Mr. Reagan's attorney's was on the board; his family name is on a building on the Stanford campus.

As a student I was not particularly outstanding, though, I was generally bright (I think). Dad wangled me an introduction to both men. It got me a recommendation for my application to Stanford. I went, and graduated with a degree in economics. For that I was and am grateful. The education received was top-notch.

Below the fold, the effects of that -

I admit it. I was late paying my water bill. So, I thought I'd better go to the City Hall and pay it.

I live in Port Saint Lucie Florida, a sprawling bedroom community with little industry and lots of NE US retirees (I'm not one of them, I swear).

The room I enter to give them my check is about 1500 square feet around and has a reception desk and 13 windows with a waiting area in the center.

I was directed to window number 12 and realized that there were surveillance cameras behind each window (13 of them), one in each corner of the room (4) and one in the center. Check my math ... that's 18 cameras, right?

I called Senator Bill Nelson's (D-FL) offfice about his support for the "Bush Pardon and Constitutional Repeal Act of 2006."

Probably the most important thing I learned was that, in order to get through, I had to use redial at least six times to get an open line.

In the background, you could hear phones ringing off the hook.

I congratulated him ... below the fold.

According to Reuters Federal Judge Anna Diggs Taylor denied the Bush administration a lengthy stay in their appeal of her earlier ruling that warrantless wiretaps were illegal.

The Bush 9/11 speech was a masterpiece.

This may be too short for a diary, but, nowhere have I seen this connection drawn. If I'm wrong, tell me and I'll delete it.

He admitted that Iraq/Saddam had no link to 9/11. He then proceeded to defend the Iraq invasion as part of the war on terror, thus re-establishing the link he had just denied. Masterful.

You know, "Iraq/Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11, but winning in Iraq is necessary to win the war on terror."

We were yelling "foul" while "Path to 9/11" was airing, and, being interrupted by a Presidential speech across all networks.

Meanwhile, Bush almost admitted an error, saying that there was, indeed no connection between Iraq/Saddam and 9/11. He continued by defending the Iraq war in a 9/11 speech. Voila, 9/11 to Saddam connection miraculously restored!