Month: June 2020

A few days on ChromeBook

Overall I like this very much. It weighs next to nothing. Has built in speakers, bluetooth, wifi. Only two USB ports but that’s nothing can’t be rectified with a USB hub. Also has an HDMI port too.

I do have to decorate it still. That broad silver cover needs it. I’m thinking RedHat/CentOS stickers, MySWL, Command Prompt. You name it.

I figured it out

As to why I’m not racist. It all goes back to when I was younger and doing a radio show. Met a few listeners and they were astounded that I was a white guy.

Then of course there was a local meat market near me up north. One day one of the guys behind the counter asked me why I came there. I explained good quality meats for reasonable prices. Huh. He asked me why I wasn’t bothered by the fact a lot of people of color shopped there. Why the hell would I be.

Maybe it’s because I know what makes skin different colors and it’s all got to do with resistance to UV light. Plus in my mind the spectrum of human coloration is beautiful. I’ve seen ones that take my breath away.

I guess I never thought to limit myself in my interactions with others of our species. We’re all human. And I guess too I took the lesson to heart never judge a book by the cover.

It’s like what happend the other day I met a neighbor. He was a black guy – but this guy knew the U.S. Constitution. Had I refused to talk to him I’d never have known that. This is the type of thing that irritates me about for example the Greenwood Masacre, or the cops killing unarmed black men with no remorse. It needs to be stopped – and if means getting rid of qualified immunity for police then so be it.

Reading “White Fragility’

So I bought the book. I had to as I’m curious about the content. I mean I’m white as some would call it. To look at me you see the Italian traits, some Mediterranean traits and the Neanderthal.

I’m not your typical white guy either. I’ve said it in the past the range of human coloration to me is beautiful. But I try to understand the mindset of my fellow humans. It’s the same with how I used voter data to determine roughly 1/3 of the electorate is in more modern terms bat shit crazy. Just reading the foreword of the book and it discusses the social construct of whiteness.

It’s interesting – when I was talking to my neighbor I mentioned put me in the sun for about 15-20 minutes a day in spring/summer and I asked what color he thought I turned. He said red, i told him I turn brown. You can definitely tell I’m not a Lilly white guy.

As I read I’ll post snippets of the book. Should be interesting.

Happy Loving Day

Today marks the 53rd anniversary of Loving v. Virginia. It marks a time when pales asses like myself can be with a person whose color differs from mine.

Perhaps we should all reflect on this. I remember the gsy march on D.C. There was an interracial couple with a sign supporting gay peoples right to marry.

So in closing I wish everyone a Happy Loving Day today.

Scientists ID gene in ALS

Well this is interesting. Scientists at UMD have figured out which gene is defective in patients with ALS.

This is interesting to me since it’s either my janked up spine causing my symptoms or ALS which there is a history of it in my family. Now to fix it. The article alludes to this.

To be able to walk normally again, to run, etc. That would be nice.

How to change policing

I finally hit on it. I had once thought disarming police might do it but that theory has been proven incorrect. Instead let’s contact our elected representatives and senators and demand we remove funding from police departments. Only enough police for domestic violence, property crime, murder investigation and that’s pretty much all they need.

I’m most family with police where I used to live. At one point the department was 600 sworn officers. It’s down below 400 now. But it needs to be further reduced. And one other thing we could do is issue the Implicit Bias test to all police. You’d pretty much spot the white supremacists right out with that one. They’d be the first to go.

My take on the protests now happening

First of all I’m surprised it’s gone on for nearly a week now. And delighted that the President felt it necessary to hide in a bunker.

However I understand why people are protesting. It is our right as citizens of this country to petition government for redress of grievance. And I’d say we all have a grievance to be aired. I for one am disgusted when police get away with what in my view is murder of black people.

Though I’m starting to see that police are getting a drubbing over this and rightfully so.

Of course we sorely lack leadership – as a certain Petulant Man Child in Chief cowers in a bunker or simply goes and plays golf. And people are frustrated and angry that yet another black man has been murdered on the streets of a U.S. City. Plus the President is also egging on the cops. Not the way to go with November coming up.