Archive | What I’m Reading

Many whites really don’t even understand the problem blacks are talking about and I think this discussion on Facebook helps illustrate so the depth and danger of the misunderstanding and they think that liberals like me by condemning the action in Ferguson MO we are endorsing black on white violence and crime. Have these guys below have any idea of what a Non Sequitor is?  A statement that does not logically follow from the previous statement.

The problem is not about white on black or black on white crime per se both of which should both be abhorrent in the minds of liberal and conservatives alike but the problem we had in Ferguson is encapsulated somewhere in the statement that “1 Black Man Is Killed Every 28 Hours by Police or Vigilantes” (the emphasis is mine)

“Police officers, security guards, or self-appointed vigilantes extrajudicially killed  at least 313  African-Americans in  2012 according to a recent study. This means a black person was killed by a security officer every 28 hours. The report notes that it’s possible that the real number could be much higher.”

But surely white people are also extrajudicially killed so how do these numbers compare with the killing of white people? (from the report)

Sample data: Since there is no national database that keeps track of state sanctioned these killings let alone one that analyzes the data by race, it is impossible to give a comprehensive answer. The partial studies that do exist consistently find that Black people are killed by police, security guards and vigilantes in numbers dramatically out of proportion to their share in the population.17 But we do have sample data that give a strong indication of how extreme the disparity is. In both large cities like Chicago and small towns like Saginaw, Michigan, nearly all the people who are killed extrajudicially are Black, although they are not even the majority of the population of those cities.

2012 Comparison of Black, Latino and White Extrajudicial Killings in Five Cities

City	% of Black people in the population*	% of people killed by police who were Black	% of Latino people in population	% of people killed by police who were Latino (non Afro)	% of white (non-Latino) people in the population	% of people killed by police who were white, non-Latino
Chicago, IL	32.9%	91% (21)	28.9%	4% (1)	31.7%	4% (1)
Houston, TX**	23.7%	48% (12)	43.8%	12% (3)	25.6%	(8)
New York, NY	28.6%	87% (20)	25.5%	9% (2)	33.3%	4% (1)
Rockford, IL	20.5%	100% (3)	15.8%	0% (0)	58.4%	0% (0)
Saginaw, MI	46.1%	100% (4)	14.3%	0% (0)	37.5%	0% (0)

*Population percentages are from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/ * * The race of 4 of the 25 (16%) killed in Houston was not identified.

Taser death disparity: An organization that keeps track of taser deaths has found that 41% of those who died between 2009 and 2013 from police tasers have been Black.18 Black people are about 13% of the U.S. population.

Excessive force against white people: One can find many cases where police use excessive force against white people—especially against those who have been diagnosed with mental illness and/or are self‐medicated. It seems that a larger percentage of white people who are killed extrajudicially by police are involved with shootouts with the police. The recent killings of law enforcement agents by members of the Aryan Brotherhood may indicate a more widespread willingness on the part of white criminals to go toe‐to‐toe with law enforcement.19 When police shoot violent meth‐traffickers, these killings are either the result of traditional policing or the indirect effects of Operation Ghetto Storm. Police developed their militarized shoot‐to‐kill approaches for dealing with Black and Brown people which tend to spill over to their approach to white people. However, extrajudicial killing of white people is not institutionalized and encouraged by the systematic demonization of a “racial” group, “stop and frisk” or other racial profiling systems.

(Warning crude NSF language)

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Is The Original New Testament Lost? :: A Dialogue with Dr. Bart Ehrman & Dr. Daniel Wallace

The audio has this buzz that drove me nuts but it is still a n elegant debate well worth listening too.

Just found this video in my YouTube suggestions tonight which I thought was sort of strange. I first saw it and liked it all the way back in May of 2012 and watching it again tonight I still like it. It a nice short film about this fellows experience of being and Atheist.

The first few sentences are oh so true for this atheist too…

“Recently, I’ve been wrestling with the perplexing realization that since leaving the Christian faith, I see the planet around me and the vast universe in which it moves with a far greater sense of awe and majesty than I ever perceived it as a believer. I took an informal poll of friends whose life-trajectories matched my own, and found that every one of them felt exactly the same way. For myself, and for many of the deconverted, the awe we feel now, having left the faith, is far greater, far more wondrous, far more intoxicating and euphoric than anything we ever felt as believers. But why?….”

I don’t think I ever became an Atheist. It was more like one day I just discovered I was an Atheist. What a sublime wondrous beautiful feeling.

Rachel Maddow: ‘WHY WE DID IT’ The Invasion Of Iraq (Full HD) – YouTube
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