Diversion

Tumbleweeds blowing down an empty street.

I don't know why this made me picture that.

Move along, nothing to see here.

Hey Ana, where's Jay? Is he working at SI yet? Can you trade him for Paul Zimmerman?

I guess stupid crap still sells for Time?

Can we have a photoshopped image of Bill Richardson playing soccer next? How about Rudy Giuliani steering a gondola?

At the very least, I like to think they'd avoid stupid wars.
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You are channeling Joe Klein now, Ana, i.e., after he had the scales removed from his eyes.

Question: Are there any other kinds of wars other than "stupid wars"?

Wow, this is dumb

Is this a joke? If so, where's the humor?

What, no penguins?

What is a "Hibatchi?"

We can not win this war against college campus terrorists, so we should withdraw our combat forces from all campuses now.

There is no winning this futile war against campus terrorists.

The campus terrorists don't like us anyway.

This is a botched war on campus terrorists, we have no business fighting them everywhere, our money would be better spent on Social Security and Medicaid.

Fighting college campus terrorists just creates more campus terrorists, so we must stop fighting campus terrorists.

I'm just following liberal loon logic here.

Ants don't like cucumber you know.

Wow. What a humorless bunch of comments.

Well, I'll defend it because Agent Zero is quite simply the most fun athlete in the NBA and it is awful that he wasn't able to provide a show -- on and off the court -- in this year's playoffs.

And yes, it is fun and I am going to buy a t-shirt.

He's his generation's Mark Fidryich (look it up on Wikipedia), who I believe was on the cover of Time magazine thirty years ago with Big Bird.

And Ana, its Hibachi!, not Hibatchi. And Agent Zero would launch a war -- just against Duke and Coach K.

Chris R--I, for one, find these comments HILARIOUS. Especially since in all their earnest excoriations of the criminal unseriousness of the post, they clearly ignored that it appears under the head "Diversion." They're all collectively sputtering about the frivolous content something the writer already LABELED AS FRIVOLOUS. You show 'em, committed commentariat!

Another thing:

under Gilbert, I'm not so sure they'll have a Secretary of Defense.

Shame On Them.

The pain is still raw; the shock is still present and the memories are very fresh. These realities, however, has not ceased the mainstream media’s and the callers of talk shows from calling for the scalps of rap artists who promote destruction and violence through their lyrics. I have written over the years at great length, about the pernicious racial double standard that exists in American society and culture---and sadly, I have yet more to write. There are some who, in the wake of this tragedy, have attempted to make cheap political points, with fallacious and prejudicial assertions---or should I say assumptions (to speak about these issues at a time like this, is not my first preference, but the agents of bigotry and racism give me little choice).

Now we have learned, according to an interview with his roommates on CNN”s 360 last night, he was a fan of hard rock music—a predominately white genre. I don’t anticipate the same moral outcry from society against this form of music as there has been against hip-hop, because it appears that the violence and misogyny of white rock and mainstream culture in general, gets a free pass when there’s a scapegoat of color to focus on. When will we learn?

It is a most iniquitous and duplicitous paradigm we have here. I have said this before (and very recently) but it bears repeating: When mass murders are perpetrated by whites, there is this media and societal deracialization of the perpetrator. However, when the murderer is a person of color, race seems to be all that most can see.

So what should we have learned? If the battle against misogyny and violence begins and ends with hip-hop; it the battle begins and ends with Black faces; if it fails to address the dehumanization of whole countries in the Middle East that makes violence against those people justifiable; then it is a strategy that is bound to fail.

Shame On Them.

At least he wasn't photoshopped into a cleaning ladies outfit. That particular stereotype might draw national castigation.

Let the healing continue!

Karen,

It's misleading to link to Deadspin as if this was their idea. It's the Wizznutzz (wizznutzz.com). As a long-time reader, I didn't even have to follow the links to know that it was them. Wizznutzz on Time-this has to be a sign of the apocalypse.

And WTF Edward Rhymes? Way to stay on topic.

Sam....

considering that Ana's little diversion feeds into racist stereotypes, I don't think Edwards comment was all that off-topic.

So, where's the 'toon of Edwards running on a platform of relaxation therapy and message while courting the hairstylist union and thumbing his nose at Faux.

Paul_Lukasiak and other policers of racial rectitude: The joke in the image is that Gilbert Arenas refers to himself frequently as the "first black president." It is in fact the name he uses on his MySpace page. That, you may be shokced to learn, is also the distinction to which Barack Obama aspires. Hence the image is not feeding into racist stereotypes, but is a visual rendering of something called "wordplay"--something with which I now see the vast majority of Swampland commenters are utterly unfamiliar. And yes, I do feel silly having to explain all this to people who might otherwise be expected to have a passing familiarity with the topic, and to leave off their self-righteous hectoring long enough to appreciate a small visual jest. But I'm quite certain that none of you FEEL AT ALL SILLY, and will try to cop some sort of contact high off your righteous fury.

"Anti-Duke crusades make perfect sense."

It's certainly made enough money for Time-Warner.

Gilbert Ticket-

I love it when the context wonks strut in and pull back the curtains of ignorance. Oh, the pains of stumbling around in the dark. Thanks. But (forgive me if I'm wrong) I thought the message of our latest moment of national racial healing was that context didn't matter as much as a few well chosen quotes.

I just visited wizznutzz.com. I'm sorry, but is that a picture of a black baby in a toilet? I'm sure a context cop will be by shortly to set me straight.

Jimmy--I am among the Imus detractors, having never found his shtick funny or edifying and the casual racism and sexism, well, racist and sexist. And unfortunately the only context he seemed to have was his more bigoted crony McGuirk. But it does seem the long knives are out now for any perceived deviation from a rather shortsighted etiquette, shorn of any consideration of intent--and yes, context. Weird--but also quite amusing for students of self-congratulatory human folly.

"And unfortunately the only context he seemed to have was his more bigoted crony McGuirk."

Context- what a magically malleable thing.

Perhaps, if Imus does come back, he'll have the good sense to insult everyone except African Americans and women. In the mean while we'll have to contend ourselves to finding context when necessary and avoiding it when it's not so needed. It works great when you know about obscure basketball players, their farcical political aspirations and the rationalizations associated with photoshopping a black politician into a stereotype of "successful black athelete". Not so useful when you can brand a man that insults everybody, and has done so for years, as a racist and a sexist. Go figure.

Hmm, not buying it. You can "insult everybody" without also deriding them for attributes of their birth, and using epithets that are key to denying entire classes of people political equality. As Gene Robinson put it, for hundreds of years black Americans couldn't say "I would like to vote." It seems not at all onerous to expect white public figures to refrain from terms like "nappy headed hos"--especially when appplied to a group of women whose only claim to attention is their ability to play basketball exceedingly well. (Oh, and if you want to claim McGuirk is no bigot, good luck: he's already been fired repeatedly for on-air racism-baiting. . . )

And as for basketball: Gilbert Arenas is no "obscure basketball player"! He was the NBA's second leading scorer most of this season, and has been profiled everywhere from Esquire to the NYTimes magazine. He has no "farcical political aspirations"--just a healthy sense of humor about himself and his own celebrity. Something that Imus, among others, would have done well to emulate. . . .

Oh, and to clarify a bit: I didn't say that Imus himself was "racist and sexist"; I said his utterances were. Wouldn't profess to know the man's heart--but I would note that DJ's get fired quite frequently, usually for saying less boorish things than he did. The real people who got Imus fired were his network and his sponsors, who realized it now hurts business to advertise intolerance. It's a little sobering to realize that's what it takes to get people to think about the content of their speech, but I certainly don't believe that such thinking is a bad thing, and am glad the way the market now works will probably prompt a good deal more of it.

All of us in the Mothering Hut love you ANA MArie!!!

WOW We are so honored - TIME MAGAZINE!!!!
We always thought we would be first mentioned in Time in a feature called "Monkey Pox In The Suburbs?" or "Healthwatch: Silence = Bacon!!"

Why has Mitchell Butler never been the MAN OF THE YEAR???

Hey Jimmy, black baby in toilet??? You must have glassy racist eyeballs!! It is in fact picture of a Cuban-american baby in a BIDET! Gilbert Arenas' baby daughter, Izela, in fact, who likes to play in his bidet according to his Puitzer Prize snubbed blog!!!
http://www.nba.com/blog/gilbert_arenas.html

"Hey Jimmy, black baby in toilet??? You must have glassy racist eyeballs!! It is in fact picture of a Cuban-american baby in a BIDET! Gilbert Arenas' baby daughter, Izela, in fact, who likes to play in his bidet according to his Puitzer Prize snubbed blog!!!"

Thanks for explaining the CONTEXT. Out of CONTEXT, an image that superimposes a black basketball player's Cuban-American baby into the bowl of Italian bidet advertisement might be cause for concern. Thankfully it didn't end up on MSNBC.

Just checking: Does "your comments are awaiting moderation by the blog owner" = beat it, you're banned?

Guess not, my bad.

Gilbert Ticket - I had a response to your comments but they appear to have dissolved into the internets. You'll just have to wonder...

can Corey Patteron be secretary of the interior?

Dmitri Young definitely drug czar he will make 'Traffic' look like a bad hollywood movie!

wait a second...