Cheaters Never Win or Do They?

It's Not Right But It's Okay

Whitney Houston | MySpace Music Videos



Friday night you and your boys went out to eat
Then they hung out, but you came home around three, yes, you did
If six of y'all went out, ah
Then four of you were really cheap, yeah
'Cause only two of you had dinner, I found your credit card receipt

1-It's not right, but it's ok
I'm gonna make it anyway
Pack your bags, up and leave
Don't you dare come running back to me
It's not right, but it's ok
I'm gonna make it anyway
Close the door behind you, leave your key
I'd rather be alone than unhappy

I'm packin' bags so you can leave town for a week, yes I am
The phone rings and then you look at me
(Why'd you turn and looked at me?)
You said it was one of your friends down on 54th street, boy
So why did 213 show up on your caller ID

(I've been through all of this before)
I've been through all of this before
(So how could you think)
Don't think about it, don't think about it
(That I would stand around and take some more)
Ain't gon' get yours (Things are gonna change) Things are gonna change, baby (Cuz I won't be your fool anymore)
You don't stand a chance, boy (That's why you'll have to leave)
Say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (So don't turn around to see my face)
Don't you turn around
There's no more tears left here for you to see

Was it really worth you going out like that
Tell me boy, see I'm moving on, and I refuse to turn back, yeah
See all of this time I thought I had somebody down for me
It turns out you were making a fool of me, yeah

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So my last thread “This is It*” got a little out of hand. Accusations were thrown out, and I just don’t know what to believe. So, it got me thinking how sometimes we have to rely on our intuition in order to get to the truth. Perhaps, the perfect example of this is the feeling that your partner or spouse is cheating on you. So I decided to blog this one.

In usual Donovan fashion, here are my questions. (I love referring to myself in the third person; it makes me feel superior. Lol) (1) Have you ever suspected your partner’s cheating on you? (2) What gave you the clue(s)? (3) How did you handle it? (4) Did you need proof? (5) Have you ever “cheated” or broke the rules of your relationship? (6) If so, how did it make you feel? (7) Do you think cheating (or contemplating being unfaithful) is a natural part of relationships?

Remember everyone is welcome to share her or his thoughts. Please be mindful that hijacking a blog thread is almost as obnoxious as blogd**king or “trolling” (i.e., deliberately being disruptive for the sake of being provocative at the expense of the blog author). I look forward to your thoughtful and respectful responses. Feel free to share this blog posting with your friends on Facebook and other social networking sites suing the “share” button below.

Michael, The Rochester Guy (MTRG) Like You Have Never Seen Him*

Owned

LULZ HUNTER | MySpace Video


One of MySpace's most notorious bloggers finds himself on reality TV. Why, he is suing his ex-friend. Your thoughts? Play nice folks. Name calling discourages meaningful conversation. Real talk.


* I know I am gonna be put on blast for posting this thread. Let the daggers fly. lol

Do You Know What Makes You Happy?




If the Shiny Happy People video above fails to play, click here or visit its YouTube page located at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FjSchBoch0

Shiny Happy People

Shiny happy people laughing
Meet me in the crowd
People people
Throw your love around Love me love me
Take it into town
Happy happy
Put it in the ground
Where the flowers grow
Gold and silver shine

Shiny happy people holding hands
Shiny happy people laughing

Everyone around love them, love them
Put it in your hands
Take it take it
There's no time to cry Happy happy
Put it in your heart
Where tomorrow shines
Gold and silver shine
Shiny happy people holding hands
Shiny happy people laughing

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Note: Please watch the video prior to replying.

The past few threads have been about dark issues such as racism, child abuse, politics etc. For this thread, I wanted to focus on the creative forces that make you, your community, your country, or the world better. Affirmation is key here.



This is your opportunity to talk about what makes you happy. It can be watching the New England Patriots destroy their competitors (no offense to Titan fans). It could your reading a book from your favorite author. Perhaps, landscaping or home decorating in your thing. What about spending time with your family or best friends during the weekend. Personally, I love getting on a plane and flying to Jamaica…I love the spirit of my friends and family there. I always feel renewed after a trip to my home country. So, I have only one question for you what (activity, thing, event, situation etc) brings out the best in you?



Everyone is welcome to share her or his shiny happy thoughts. I look forward to reading your comments. Oh yeah, feel free to leave kudos…they make me happy.

This thread is dedicated to all of the Shiny Happy People. You make me smile.  One love.

Why Conservatives Are Really Afraid of a Black President?

By Jonathan L. Walton, Religion Dispatches
Posted on October 10, 2009, Printed on October 14, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/143153/

... in Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, "Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on," and, of course, everybody says the white kid deserved it, he was born a racist, he's white. Newsweek magazine told us this. We know that white students are destroying civility on buses, white students destroying civility in classrooms all over America, white congressmen destroying civility in the House of Representatives. -- Rush Limbaugh, Sept. 15, 2009 



Ever the statesman, and often candid to a political fault, former President Jimmy Carter said recently that much of the animosity directed toward President Barack Obama is "based on the fact that he is a black man."

A lifelong Southerner, Carter acknowledged that the inclination of racism still exists, and that "it has bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African Americans are not qualified to lead this great country."

Though courageous, the former president's pronouncement will surely be considered controversial to many Republicans and Democrats alike. Some will view Carter's comments as politically inexpedient.

The topic of race in general, and charges of racism in particular, is political dynamite that typically explodes in the hands of the accuser -- just ask [Harvard] Professor Skip Gates, [New York] Gov. David Paterson, or Obama (whom I will return to momentarily).

Unless someone is wearing a Klan hood while yelling, "Nigger, Go Back to Africa," the charge of racism seems to offend the accused these days more than the actual victims.

This is true, in part, due to the most prevalent view of the problem of race and racism in this country. In the eyes of many, the responsibility of moving beyond racial conflict in America is placed at the feet of minority communities of color, as opposed to the dominant society.

We've all heard it. America will move beyond race to a colorblind society only when minority groups cease dwelling on difference. Such a view permeates the melting pot ideal of American folklore, the myth of meritocracy and even the "post-racial" dimension of electoral politics.

Thus, for Carter to call out this segment of the white community, he is disrupting the conspiracy of silence concerning racial injustice that demands the allegiance of politicians on the national scene.

Think about it. Is this not the racial bargain that Obama accepted to become the nation's first African American president? Matters pertaining to race have been avoided unless absolutely necessary (cough, cough, the Rev. [Jeremiah] Wright).

And in terms of policy, obstacles faced by any particular group, like disproportionate unemployment among communities of color, for example, are obfuscated by anemic and ineffectual broad-based prescriptions. Rising tides lift all boats, right?

Yet Obama's enormous success in life, whether as a highly educated community organizer or as America's commander in chief, exposes the paradox this sort of faux post-racialism presents.

It's a one-sided deal for people of color; as "post-racial" in effect means post-black, post-brown, post-red and post-yellow, while leaving the normative racial framework of whiteness intact. Race is the challenge people of color must confront and, dare I say, "get over."

But a post-racial America does not demand the same of those who identify with, and claim the social construction of, whiteness and perceived privileges and cultural superiority therein.

This is why, it would seem, Obama's body standing behind the American presidential seal has a critical segment of America losing its hold on reality -- a reality, I would argue, few have ever been forced to acknowledge up to this point.

Whether it's the birthers, tea-baggers, deathers, indoctrinators, or "You lie!"-ers, they have neither veiled their racial animus nor cloaked their white nationalism. The prevalence of racist images of Obama brandished by protesters juxtaposed with calls of "taking our country back" are reminiscent of D.W. Griffith's fictional America as depicted in the film Birth of a Nation.

And the pride with which this segment of society has rallied the troops around its shared sense of whiteness reveals that their skin color is the one true object of pledged allegiance and determinant of professed patriotism. [See "Unregulated Capitalism and Christian Fervor: Report from the 9/12 Rally at the Capitol" from Sept. 17.]

Herein lies Carter's perceptive point. Obama can't win with these folks, because they are blinded not just by his race but also by an uncritical devotion to their own. His pigmentation rather than his policies cut against the grain of what these persons wrongly consider "natural" or "American."

More specifically, his very being is a haunting rejoinder to such white Americans of what they are not -- indeed what they have never been. This African American man with an Arabic name has dared to usurp all of the cultural and cognitive tropes that white supremacy has historically claimed for itself. He is calm in the face of their unrestrained emotion. The more illogical they act, the more rational he comes across. And, of course, the more eloquent and erudite he presents himself, the more he provokes the Joe Wilsons of the world to mindlessly blurt out, "You lie!"

In the process, Obama has transformed such opponents into the racial other, an uneducated and uncultured blob of white (and largely Southern) backwardness that is beyond the pale of social redemption or acculturation. Wilson and the remaining Sons of Confederate Veterans have, in effect, become this "black man's burden."

Maybe this helps explain Glenn Beck's ridiculous yet probably heartfelt assertion that the president has a "deep-seated hatred for white people."

The president reminds Beck, along with those who identify with Beck's form of white neo-nationalism, of the lie of their own professed superiority -- a place of comfort and privilege in America that was neither deserved nor ever attained, yet still claimed based on the pinkness of their skin and straightness of hair. Obama's apparent success only further dismantles this lie and pours salt in socially insecure wounds.

Similar can be said of those who need the president to be Adolf Hitler. If Obama is Hitler, that means protestors can liken themselves unto the Jews; only this time it's a victimized-yet-devout group of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants who want nothing more than to restore a nation that God, or more appropriately, Jefferson Davis, decreed as divinely their own.

The ability to make such ludicrous claims on conservative radio, Fox News, and on Capitol Hill, however, represents the kind of power that they unduly still possess. As tasteless as Wilson's heckling of the president was, it still takes an immense level of privilege to be a jerk on the floor of Congress.

My point here is simply that the problem of race in America has never been solely or predominantly a minority issue. It is first and foremost, as Carter said, a problem of whiteness.

Just as racial segregation in Wilson's fond memories of idyllic South Carolina was less about black people but a matter of white phobia, the lie of whiteness projects its fears upon minority bodies like the president's in hopes of maintaining its own unhealthy and unrealistic sense of being in charge.

This is why James Baldwin rightly suggested years ago that "the vast amount of the energy that goes into what we call the 'Negro problem' is produced by the white man's profound desire not to be judged by those who are not white."

I believe this applies to our current president and his most vocal critics. If he is framed as the foreigner, incarnate evil and indoctrinating Nazi, many won't have to acknowledge that he may just be smart, sophisticated and a devout patriot. God forbid.

And if he is, what does that make them? 



Jonathan L. Walton is assistant professor of religious studies at the University of California, Riverside. He teaches courses in African American religion; religion, media and culture; and religion and political discourse. His new book is, Watch This! The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Religious Broadcasting (New York University Press).

© 2009 Religion Dispatches All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/143153/

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According to Wikipedia, "racism is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and those racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. In the case of institutional racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits, or get preferential treatment...The UN does not define "racism", however it does define "racial discrimination": according to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, “the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.”

With that as a working definition, (1) is racism still alive in this country? (2) If so, how have you worked to eliminate it? (3) If racism is in our imaginaitions only, why do you think people claim racism exists if it doesn’t? On another note, (4a) how accurate is the essay above? (4b) Do you think conservatives are really afraid of the idea of a Black president? (5) If so, why? (6) If not, can you explain the relationship between conservatives' “true” (your perspective) "beef"with the current president of the USA (Barack Obama)?

Everyone is welcome to share her or his thoughts. As a reminder, adults can disagree without resorting to name calling or offensive language. Your elders taught you better than that. ::: smile :::

Feel free to share this thread with MySpace or social networking friends. Kudos are welcome.

...When Two Tribes Go to War.




If the video above fails to play, click here or visit its YouTube page located at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTOQUnvI3CA.

“…When two tribes go to war
A point is all you can score…”

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Here We Go Again: Democrats Turning off Their Voting Base
by Kevin Zeese
October 08, 2009

Monday, October 5, 2009 may have been the beginning of the end of a Democratic majority in the House and Senate. Peace advocates demonstrated at the White House resulting in 61 arrests. The peace movement has grown tired of Obama’s failure to end the Iraq war, his escalation of the Afghanistan war, his expansion of the war into Pakistan and his growing military budget. They have turned their criticism onto him and the Democratic Congress but the Democrats are not listening.

Does President Obama remember how the Democrats regained the majority in the House and Senate? Does he remember how he bested Hillary Clinton in the primaries? Here’s a reminder.

Republicans dominated politics for the first eight years of the 21st Century. When President Bush attacked Iraq and pulled the U.S. into a war quagmire resulting in mass deaths of civilians and soldiers as well as bleeding of the U.S. treasury, the peace movement reacted. They highlighted the failures of the war, the lies that got America in to Iraq and the death, destruction and economic catastrophe the war was bringing. Peace activists demonstrated in Congress, sat-in the offices of elected officials and protested whenever Bush administration officials testified in Congress.

The public began to hear the full story – the weapons of mass destruction were a lie, there was no link between Saddam and Osama, the casualties of war were increasing, the cost of war was escalating, the largest mercenary force in history was violating laws. Opinion rapidly turned against the war. The result, in 2006, the voters threw out the Republicans and gave the Democrats solid control of both Houses of Congress.

In 2008, the front runner, then-Senator Hillary Clinton, was running a campaign for the presidency that seemed unstoppable. The media and politicians treated her election as an inevitable fait accompli. But, Clinton had voted for the Iraq invasion and this did not sit well with the American public, especially with anti-war Democrats – the base of the Democratic Party. The media anointed then-Senator Barack Obama as the “peace” candidate because of a speech he gave opposing the war before being elected to the U.S. senate. Aware of the mood of the voters he began his speeches with the promise: “I will end the war in Iraq.” Anti-war Democrats were enough to carry him through the primary and into the presidency.

In both cases, voters opposed to war were critical to determining the outcome.

But now, the Obama administration is ignoring those voters. The day after the protests at the White House it was reported in Talking Points Memo that the administration said: “White House officials say Obama is not focusing on antiwar protesters -- neither the more than 60 who were arrested yesterday at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue nor the handful outside the White House gates today -- or on a MoveOn email petition circulating asking him for a clear military exit strategy.”

The peace movement is noting that the president is ignoring their calls to end the war. Even worse for the president, this time we are starting as the majority. Polls show that more than 70% of Democrats oppose the Afghanistan war and sending more troops to the region as do a majority of Americans.

Obama is forgetting how he and the Democrats came to power. Who does Obama think provides much of the person-power for their elections? Or, the small grass roots donations? What do Obama and the Democrats think will happen if the peace movement stays home in 2010?

And, to make matters worse, he is repeating the mistake made in the health care debate. The president has been unable to excite grass roots support for reform because he and Congressional leaders took the most popular option, a single payer national health program, off the table. They would not consider the approach most Americans preferred. Instead, the Democrats have pushed a scheme that will enrich the health insurance industry – corporations that Americans hate and see as corrupt – by forcing Americans to buy their overpriced insurance.

So, what is his administration doing when it comes to Afghanistan? Making the same mistake. They are considering all options except the one Americans want. They have taken off the option list getting out of Afghanistan. Secretary Gates said this week “We are not leaving Afghanistan. This discussion is about next steps forward.” And, the president’s press secretary Robert Gibbs said: “I don't think we have the option to leave. That's quite clear.”

At a time when the Republicans are energizing their base by challenging President Obama, the Democrats are turning off their base whether on health care, bailing out Wall Street or now on the Afghanistan war. Do the Democrats really have the hubris to think they can turn their base off and stay in office? If they do, they are likely to learn a very painful lesson in 2010 and 2012.

Kevin Zeese is executive director of Voters for Peace and Prosperity Agenda.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific and social justice issues.

© Copyright 2009 SleptOn Magazine . All Rights Reserved

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Obama supporters and Democrats are probably not that happy to read the essay above. But, it is just an essay and here is your chance to challenge it or embrace it. In usual fashion, here are my blog questions (1) What in your mind is the difference between Republicans and Democrats? (2) Is President Obama carrying on willingly the “War of Terror” legacy of the Bush administration under a different name? (3) Are the Democrats ignoring their base when it comes to domestic and international issues? (4) Will the Democrats in Congress (and in state offices) lose their power in the upcoming elections? (5) If so, why? (6) What is your opinion of Mr. Obama’s handling of the war(s) abroad? (7) If you were running this country, what would you do differently?

As a reminder, I believe adults can disagree without resorting to hateful words or name calling. With that said, I look forward to your thoughts, comments, and (if you are so inclined) kudos! Feel free to use the “Share” function below to send this to your friends at other social networking sites who may be interested in this topic. Thanks SleptOn.com for allowing me to feature ('pimp') the above article.

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I Want to Kill Myself. Help.

Everybody Hurts performed by R.E.M.
(Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe)



If the video above fails to play, click here or visits its YouTube page located at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pudOFG5X6uA

When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone,
When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on
Don't let yourself go, 'cause everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes

Sometimes everything is wrong. Now it's time to sing along
When your day is night alone, (hold on, hold on)
If you feel like letting go, (hold on)
When you think you've had too much of this life, well hang on

'Cause everybody hurts. Take comfort in your friends
Everybody hurts. Don't throw your hand. Oh, no. Don't throw your hand
If you feel like you're alone, no, no, no, you are not alone

If you're on your own in this life, the days and nights are long,
When you think you've had too much of this life to hang on

Well, everybody hurts sometimes,
Everybody cries. And everybody hurts sometimes
And everybody hurts sometimes. So, hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on
Everybody hurts. You are not alone

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Coming out of the dark…



When I was a teenager, it felt like I was alone. As with so many first generation immigrants, my home life was alien to the stereotypical nucleus family. Instead, home included grandparents, parents, aunt, uncles, cousins, and the occasional temporary (and always annoying) house guests. Needless to say, we always had a full house, and believe it or not, I was the person who got lost in the shuffle. This living situation was a gift as well as a curse. On one hand, I could stay out all night and no one miss me. Yet again, my accomplishments at school and other areas were overlooked or never good enough—even though I was always in the upper echelons of the Honor Roll.

My grandmother back in her heyday...



My grandmother was the exception to this rule. She tried to give me as much positive reinforcement as possible. Grandmother worked long hours and sometimes would stay away for days because of work. On one occasion, my grandmother was away and it seemed like everything hit the fan. I was never really close to my mother. In fact, she and I rarely got along. One day my mother came down on me…I snapped. Needless to say, I gave her a piece of my mind. Afterward I just wanted to destroy something…should I break the TV? Smash the radio? Burn all of my posters? No, that would be too easy. That day, I had enough, and planned to destroy something else. My life.

For 45 minutes, I lay in my bedroom looking out of the window contemplating jumping, and just getting it all over with it. I asked myself why would I stay in what I felt was a loveless relationship with family?

Now, I see the light...



But, then something happened. I realized that I was not alone. That there were people who everyday seemed to benefit the gifts I had and shared. I thought about the grief my grandmother in particular would feel. I also considered the chatter throughout the neighborhood about how I gave up. Me? A quitter? No way.

I snapped out of my temporary depression and vowed never to consider something so foolhardy again.

Today, I am happy to report that I have never gone back on my promise. For that, I am grateful.

Unfortunately, some (more than 33,000 Americans annually) take that step I reneged on decades ago. According to the American Foundation of Society Prevention, 20 to 50 percent of people are successful at suicide had already tried taking their lives. Alcoholism and substance abuse are strong influencers in suicide. Further, 90 percent of people who successfully take their lives have “treatable” conditions such as bipolar depression and schizophrenia. Did you know that males are three to five times more likely to commit suicide than females? In fact, elderly Caucasian (white) men have the highest suicide rates in the USA.

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One blog question: How do you help someone who is contemplating ending her or his life?

Everyone is welcome to share her or his words of encourage. Feel free to use the "Share" function below to let your friends and family now about this thread. Thank you for your support. I look forward to your replies.

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Sports and the Uncivil Society
by Dave Zirin
September 20, 2009



This week, the grand media theme from USA Today to ESPN has been that "we have lost a sense of civility in US society." The examples have ranged from Serena Williams's expletive-infused outburst at the US Open and Michael Jordan's brutal basketball Hall of Fame speech to Rep. Joe Wilson bleating "You lie!" and the tea bagger "Up with Racism" parade that plagued my hometown of Washington DC. The idea that we are all just a bunch of uncivil goons sounds like common sense especially when you toss in the worst of reality television and anything done by Kanye West. But this conventional wisdom is not only wrong-headed, it's downright dangerous. At the risk of sounding uncivil, the much hyped moments of Serena, Kanye, and Michael Jordan have zero in common with the confederate carnival of hate brewing on the edges of the far right. The efforts of the media to conflate "black people behaving badly" alongside "tea baggers on the march" should be soundly rejected.

I was on ESPN discussing this very subject alongside Juan Williams of Fox News who was bemoaning the "lack of civility" our culture (it's worth noting that working for Fox and voicing this complaint is like working for Oscar Mayer and preaching that meat is murder.) Juan said the incivility is connected to the presence of "reality television and people behaving badly."

Somehow I don't think Rep. Joe Wilson's been at home viewing The Real World or Flava of Love. Instead he's reading the political moment and understands that the power in the Republican Party is not invested in civility but the heat on the street. I felt the heat this past weekend and it was a blast furnace. Yes there was nowhere close to the 43 kajillion people tweeted by Michelle Malkin and friends. But even to see 50,000 people with signs like, "We come unarmed THIS time" and "The tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of tyrants" was chilling. I saw one placard that read, "I'm not a racist, I'm a patriot" standing right next to someone in black face and I saw groups of them mock and shout down a group of immigrant rights activists. To witness those signs alongside ugly caricatures of Obama with a bone through his nose was to see an open declaration of the attempted hate crimes to come.

Just because the Obama administration, due to political calculus or cowardice, refuses to call this out as racist and dangerous doesn't mean we should remain silent. But for the media, it is downright irresponsible to try to weave this lunacy into the same fabric as a tennis player misbehaving on the court. Yes, Serena Williams cursed out and threatened a line judge in the US Open semi-finals. Yes, it was inexcusable. But before we reach for the smelling salts (a profane woman! In tennis no less!) let's remember that she is hardly the first athlete to lose their head in the adrenaline-addled world of professional, organized play. Long before reality television, when the Kardashian sisters were even a gleam in someone's bloodshot eye, Ty Cobb went into the stands to beat up a disabled fan. In 1965, Hall of Fame pitcher Juan Marichal beat catcher John Roseboro with a bat right at home plate. And as long as there has been hockey, there's been blood on the ice. Violence has always been a part of what thrills and disgusts us about sports. If anything, the Serena case reveals a gender double standard more than any "absence of civility."

As for Michael Jordan, Rick Reilly of ESPN.com reflected almost the whole of the sports media on the subject when he wrote, "Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame talk was the Exxon Valdez of speeches. It was, by turns, rude, vindictive and flammable. ....Nobody was spared, including his high school coach, his high school teammate, his college coach, two of his pro coaches, his college roommate, his pro owner, his pro general manager, the man who was presenting him that evening, even his kids!...Jordan had decided that this was the perfect night to list all the ways everybody sitting in front of him had pissed him off over the past 30 years...It was the only one-man roast in Hall of Fame history. Only very little of it was funny."

I can't believe I'm writing this but for the first time in my life I feel sorry for Jordan. The historic critique of His Airness is that he is more a brand than a man. I have been critical of this guy since he first laced up sweatshop hightops. Now on the Hall of Fame stage, he actually removed the veil, and showed us his true self. The sports media has recoiled in horror at discovering that Jordan is exactly who we thought he was: competitive to the point of emotional sclerosis. He's not the first ex-jock to find himself at a loss once the cheering has stopped. But that's a far cry from showing up armed to town meetings. It blows up the importance of Jordan and Serena and tamps down the violence being brewed on the right. By saying it's all the same stew of incivility, we are just giving political cover to an inflamed minority that needs to be peacefully confronted and not coddled.

Dave Zirin is the author of "A People's History of Sports in the United States" (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.

FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific and social justice issues.

© Copyright 2009 SleptOn Magazine. All Rights Reserved.

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Wow, Dave Zirin gave us a lot to think about. So, (1) what did you take from the essay above? (2) Has our society become less respectful or civil? (3) Are sports stars today more or less courteous than star athletes of the past? (4) Should public (i.e. elected or politically appointed) figures be held to the same standards as other celebrities (i.e., entertainers, athletes, reality TV “stars”)? (5) Is the general public taking its lead from public figures, athletes, or celebrities in terms of what is “acceptable” etiquette? (6) How accurate do you think media portrayal of angry mobs at healthcare-focused town meetings or so-called "tea parties" in protest of President Obama policies has been? Finally, (7) how do you feel about Michael Jordan’s, Serena Williams’, Kanye West’s or Rep. Joe Wilson's recent remarks/outbursts/behavior?

As always, everyone is welcome to share her or his points of view. I look forward to reading your replies.

For more stories like these, visit my favorite independent news resource online SleptOn.com.

Privacy is Golden.

The following posting was taken from my favorite independent news source SleptOn.com. For more articles and essays from writers who investigate rather than just report the news, please click here.

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Stop the Savage Sex Scare in Sports

by Dave Zirin and Sherry Wolf

September 16, 2009



The salacious sports media and the puritanical zealots that run international track and field have joined forces to hit a new low. Someone in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) leaked to the press that Caster Semenya, the 18-year-old 800-meter track champion from South Africa, is, in the words of Oren Yaniv in the New York Daily News, both "a woman... and a man!"

After being subjected to a battery of "gender tests," which included invasive exams by a gynecologist, an endocrinologist and a psychologist, Semenya's private business is now presented for public consumption.

If the leaks are to be regarded as true, they show that Caster Semenya has internal testes and no womb or ovaries. She is possibly one of the millions of people in the world (one of 1,666 births in the United States alone) who are classified as "intersex."

Or she may have Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), which affects two to five out of every 100,000 births. The different biological gender classifications are complex, ever changing and, ideally, private. But to the drooling press, it's vulture time.

As Yaniv wrote, "The tests, ordered...after Semenya's 800-meter victory in the World Championships, determined she's a hermaphrodite--having both male and female organs." Now the story has gone international, and Caster Semenya has gone into hiding.

Forget for a moment that the term "hermaphrodite" is as outdated and offensive as "mulatto." Forget that these test results were leaked first to the Australian press, which also referred to Semenya as a hermaphrodite. Forget that Australia was the country that brought these accusations against Semenya in the first place.

Besides being a cruel and idiotic practice, sex testing doesn't account for the idea that gender is at least in part socially constructed and far more fluid than the iron categories of male and female. An 18-year-old woman is being torn apart in the press for doing nothing but winning a race. If it is the goal of the media and IAAF to destroy the life of a young, talented female athlete by outing her as potentially intersex then they are not simply pitiless; they are socially repugnant.

From the notion that women are somehow weaker and slower than men, to the not-so-subtle racism of Western standards of appearance, and on to their profound ignorance about the fluidity of sex and gender, these institutions are threatening to catapult women in sports back into the Dark Ages. We can't let them.

Being a woman--or a man--is not reducible to internal organs or chromosomes. Social, historical, political and economic forces shape who we are and how we perceive our gender identities, in addition to our biology.

We should be enraged by the indifference and crass opportunism at "sexy" headlines. We must demand an end to gender testing in sports as an ill-conceived endeavor that only results in tormenting its subjects and projecting garbage ideas about what men and women really are.

And after all the horror, outrage and ogling from the Daily News and its media brethren, Semenya's condition may very well be allowable under IAAF policy.

As Science of Sport reported, "While it may be suggested that being an intersex individual, or someone who is 'not entirely female,' is grounds for disqualification, it is not. In Atlanta in 1996, eight women 'failed' the sex verification test because they had a Y-chromosome (strictly speaking, they had the SRY gene or the Y-chromosome). All eight were allowed to compete."

Since 2005 eight athletes that we know about have been investigated for "sexuality issues." Of the eight, according to the IAAF secretary general, only four "were asked to stop their career."

Dr. Myron Genel, a professor emeritus of pediatrics at Yale University who was part of a special panel of experts the IAAF convened, said, "She's born a female, raised as a female through puberty. Whatever is found, with the exception of deliberate substance abuse, she's going to have to be allowed to compete as a female."

If Semenya's biology is not "normal," it's worth asking, what world-class athlete does have a normal body?

No one brands Shaquille O'Neal abnormal because he is seven feet tall. Michael Phelps, as was remarked by breathless Olympics commentators, has unusually large and flat feet that act like flippers in a pool. Usain Bolt has a stride that allows him to cover an insane amount of ground in only a few steps.

As Tommy Craggs of Deadspin writes, "Great athletes tend not to come from the vast middle of human life. They're all freaks in one way or another.... But Semenya has nevertheless been portrayed as some lone oddity on the margins, like some Elephant Man of sports, with everyone obsessing like Victorian scientists over the presence of a couple internal testicles. It's funny: People seem to think her very weirdness is grounds enough for stripping her of her medal and drumming her out of track. But this is sports. Her weirdness is perfectly normal."

It's the "her" part that gets Semenya in trouble. Exceptional male athletes are treated like kings, not sideshow freaks. But for women to join them on the royal dais, you must appear as if you can step seamlessly from the court or track and into the pages of soft-core porn. Freaks need not apply.

There are real fears, expressed by Semenya's family, for her mental health in the wake of this maelstrom. We should stand without question in solidarity with Caster Semenya and express nothing but contempt for those who would get off, financially or otherwise, on seeing her destroyed.

Dave Zirin is The Nation's sports editor. He is the author A People's History of Sports in the United States (The New Press). His writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Sports Illustrated.com and The Progressive. He is the host of Sirius/XM's Edge of Sports Radio.

Sherry Wolf is an independent journalist the author of the new critically praised book Sexuality and Socialism (Haymarket Books). She is currently organizing for the LGBT National Equality March for full civil rights in October.

This article originally appeared on Edge of Sports

 
© Copyright 2009 SleptOn Magazine. All Rights Reserved.

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Assuming you read the short article above by Sherry Wolf and Dave Zirin, here are my questions for this thread. (1) Should Caster Semenya’s so-called “gender test” been made public? (2) How to you think the results of the gender test will affect 18-year old Caster Semenya? (3) If Caster Semenya were your child, how would you feel about the attention she has received? (4) Are your own ideas regarding “what it means to be male and female,” a product of social conditioning (i.e. what society told you to think) or educational conditioning (i.e. based on scientific research and investigation)?

As always, everyone is welcome to share her or his story thoughts and comments. Remember, intelligent adults can disagree without resorting to name calling or profanity. With that said, I look forward to your feedback.

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