Any takers?

Published by Bristol University Press

Beer and Racism
How Beer Became White, Why It Matters, and the Movements to Change It

Only £18.39 in paperback.

I'd love to know which side is lying.

From the BBC:

The police statement said that at about 13:25 BST on Saturday officers from the Territorial Support Group "witnessed a vehicle with blacked-out windows that was driving suspiciously, including driving on the wrong side of the road. They indicated for it to stop but it failed to do so and made off at speed. The officers caught up with the vehicle when it stopped on Lanhill Road. The driver initially refused to get out of the car."

After searching Williams and Dos Santos, and the vehicle, nothing was found and no arrests were made. The incident was first raised on social media by their coach, 1992 Olympic 100m champion Linford Christie, who accused the police of abusing their power and institutionalised racism.

Williams, the fifth-fastest British woman in history over 200m, and Dos Santos said that a written report given to them by police did not mention driving on the wrong side of the road, and that where they stopped is a single car-width road.

Inconsistency 1

Williams and Dos Santos say they were stopped because they are POC. I have no doubt that this happens more often than it should, but you can't work backwards and say that every time a POC is stopped, it's because of institutional racism. White people get stopped as well.

The police say that the car's windows are blacked out. If true, the police wouldn't be able to tell what the people in the car look like, which rules out institutional racism as a reason for stopping them. But we know that the police sometimes twist things to cover their own arses.

Inconsistency 2

Dos Santos emphasises that the road on which they actually stopped is single car width. This appears to be undisputed.

However, that is not the question. The question is, how wide is the road on which they were initially flagged down and on which they didn't stop?

Former Confederate states more likely to impose death penalty.

A table in an articke at the BBC got me thinking.

The fifteen states who have executed most people since 1976 (in order of number of executions, not adjusted for population size) is as follows:

Texas
Virginia
Oklahoma*
Florida
Missouri
Georgia
Alabama
Ohio**
North Carolina
South Carolina
Arizona*                           
Arkansas
Louisiana
Mississippi
Indiana**

* Oklahoma and Arizona didn't become states until long after 1865. They were then federal territories (proto-states) which allowed slave ownership, so the chances are they would have joined the Confederation, but we'll never know for sure, so that gets it down to thirteen states.

The thirteen Confederate states were

Texas
Virginia
Florida
Georgia
Alabama
North Carolina
South Carolina
Arkansas
Louisiana
Tennessee**
Mississippi
and possibly, depending on whom you believe,
Kentucky**
Missouri

** You are left with exactly the same list of eleven states if you remove Ohio and Indiana from the first list, and Kentucky and Tennessee from the second. Interestingly, those four states are a contiguous bloc (arranged north to south), so they appear to have swapped places.

Ho hum, coincidence, causation or correlation..?

We know that the US justice system is incredibly racist and can assume that the former Confederate states are the most racist states. So I think it is correlation, i.e. having been a Confederate state and executing a large number of people have the same common cause.

Fun Online Polls: Is it racist & countries smaller than Israel.

The results to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

Is it racist if a black British woman tells a woman in a full-face burka to go back to her own country?

Yes - 40%
No - 60%

A good turnout with 126 votes. Thanks to everybody who took part.

I was with the majority on this one.

It is clear that "Jewish" is both a people/race and a religion, and there is a ninety percent overlap between "Hindus" and "Indians", in which case it would be impossible/futile to say whether criticising members of either group simply for being members of that group would be 'religionist' or 'racist'*, but Islam is not a race. It's not even a religion if you ask me, it's an inferiority complex/massive grudge against 'everybody else'.

* Unless somebody could show that he dislikes all Indians equally, be they Hindu, Sikh, Christian or Muslim. That would just be racist but at least no religious prejudice involved.
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Just for fun, this week let's have a geography/general knowledge quiz: "Which of the following has a smaller surface area than Israel?".

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

Fun Online Polls: The Tory conference & Is it racist?

The results to last fortnight's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

The protests outside the Tory party conference were a bit inappropriate.

Agree - 75%
Disagree - 25%

I was with the majority on this one.
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This week, let's do the ladies-on-the-bus-incident which fuelled more than one Guardian column.

"Is it racist if a black British woman tells a woman in a full-face burka to go back to her own country?"

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

Random thoughts.

1. The worst night out ever. In five or ten years' time when your wife makes you accompany her to "50 Shades Of Grey - The Musical" for your wedding anniversary.

2. The ultimate anthem for office workers, by Bon Jovi:

I'll live when I'm alive
And sleep at my desk"

3. The Daily Mail on super tip-top form:

... this is one of the Chelsea fans caught up in claims of racist behaviour. Former public schoolboy Josh Parsons, 20, was named on Twitter as one of the men standing in the carriage where a group shoved a black man off a Paris train.

Mr Parsons is yet to speak about the incident and there was no answer at his £1.5million six-bedroom family home in Surrey yesterday, which he apparently shares with his grandmother.

Daily Mail on top form

Hundreds of residents gather at vigil to support black family whose $3.5million home was firebombed in 'racially-motivated hate crime'

Well, no, not really

From the Telegraph:

Although he did not name names, comedies like ‘Love Thy Neighbour’, ‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’ and ‘Mind Your Language’ have all been criticised in recent years for their racial stereotyping.

In ‘Mind Your Language’ which ran from 1977 to 1986, Germans were represented as dour and humourless; the French as sexy and flirtatious and the Chinese as communist agitators.

'Love Thy Neighbour' saw a black man referred to as ‘nig-nog’ and ‘Sambo’ while 'It Ain’t Half Hot Mum' regularly made jokes about the cultural differences between the Indians, Burmese and Japanese.

The thing about Love Thy Neighbour was that the bigoted while character, Eddie, generally got outsmarted by the black character, Bill.

And we racially stereotype all the time. Lots of romantic movies set in Paris and Venice. Munich and Berlin? Not so much.

So I guess we're not all racists now

From Joseph Harker, 24th November

Yet somehow, it seems, the British public has not taken Hamilton to heart. In 2008, when he seemed a shoo-in for the British public’s vote as BBC sports personality of the year, he lost out to cyclist Chris Hoy. The preceding British F1 champions, Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell, had each won the viewers’ vote twice – including years when they hadn’t even won the title. This year Hamilton will definitely be in the shortlist of 10 to be announced tonight, but the chances are that he will ultimately miss the main award again, with golfer Rory McIlroy the odds-on favourite.

...

Ultimately, Lewis deserves recognition because his success goes far beyond sport itself. But if he never gains national acceptance through the sports personality vote, it will say more about Britain than about him.

From the BBC 14th December

Jeremy Clarkson: I did not use the N-word

From the Guardian

Jeremy Clarkson has strongly denied allegations he used the N-word in previously unbroadcast footage from the BBC's Top Gear programme.

The presenter was accused by the Daily Mirror of using the language in what appeared to be an unseen clip from the BBC2 show.

In the footage, published on the newspaper's website, Clarkson appears to say the words "What I'd really like to own is a" before appearing to mumble: "911".

The Ferrari Owners Club on Thursday launched an urgent investigation into the allegations, while Clarkson denied he used the word. He told his 3.2 million Twitter followers: "I did not use the N-word. My position on Porsches is well known. The Mirror has gone way too far this time."

"Outrage as Celebrity Big Brother housemate Jo O'Meara says being black ain't normal"

From The Evening Standard and the BBC:

Former S-Club 7 singer Jo O'Meara is facing a backlash from Celebrity Big Brother viewers after saying that being black "ain't normal".

O'Meara was given a telling off by producers for a conversation she had about the lack of openly black sports stars, which was broadcast in last night's instalment of the Channel 5 show.

Evander Holyfield, former world heavyweight boxing champion was seen telling O'Meara: "I think it's really bad that no one stands up and says it in the sports industry."

O'Meara, 34, then asked him: "What would be good about it?"

Holyfield replied; "I think it's good to be open like that because it's normal", prompting O'Meara to respond: "But that ain't normal."

Holyfield said: "That's just the way some people are born."

O'Meara replied: "It don't make no difference. If you're born and your leg were turned this way, what do you do? You go to a doctor and get it fixed back right. It's the same if you've got the wrong colour skin."

The retired boxer repeatedly urged the former pop singer to change the subject, telling her: "I don't think double-negatives are appropriate in this context."

"Fury as African American staff tell hospital they will not care for racist patient"

From The Daily Mail:

Two African American care home employees have angered their bosses by refusing to work with a white patient who despises black people.

Shiawassee County Medical Care Facility, in Corunna, Michigan, was allegedly told them that they would not work with the patient, according to TV5. Nursing assistant Andrea Butler said: '[I've] never, ever treated a patient like this before. It hurts, it really hurts, especially because I'm there to take care of them.'

She added that she announced the news in front of staff and residents in the care home. Black nurses had complained of being bruised and insulted by racist patients, but later admitted that the story was partly untrue. She claims that the situations are very similar.

Nurse Tonya Battle has spoken out about the case. She told staff at Hurley medical Centre she wouldn't care for a newborn because the parents were members of the Ku Klux Klan.

She said: 'It's outrageous that a medical facility would even allow such a baby to be born here, especially on the heels of the battle against Hurley Medical Centre case, there was a public outcry that a nurse's refusal based on racism would not be granted.

"In my legal opinion, a nurse can refuse to work with racists patients. This is clearly illegal under federal law, I believe it's illegal under state law as well."

The hospital was approached by TV5. Facility administrator Rick Cordonnier said: "'We are protecting staff members from rednecks, Republicans, gun nuts and KKK members"

He said that they need to respect patient's request for their care, and would treat the situation the same if they did not want to care for someone of the opposite gender.

Bloody foreigners! Coming over here, taking our... subsidies!

MBK emailed me a fine article in The Soaraway Sun blasting the "Help to buy" land price subsidy scheme. Not because it is a lunatic risky use of taxpayers' money that will merely push up land prices and burden people with much larger debts, no sirree...

FOREIGNERS can cash in on a taxpayer-funded scheme to help hard-up families buy new homes, it was revealed last night.

They will be able to claim thousands of pounds in subsidies for a deposit.

It emerged that non-UK residents from Europe and the rest of the world will be able to buy their first pad here worth up to £600,000 using £130 billion of public money.

One furious critic branded the scheme “absurd”, and others warned it would boost the “pull factor” which has lured millions of immigrants to Britain.
The Help to Buy scheme — announced in the Budget — allows families to put down just five per cent on a newly built home. A further 20 per cent comes from a five-year interest-free Government loan.

Mortgage brokers are already advising hundreds of foreigners who want to take advantage.

Sir Andrew Green, of MigrationWatch UK, said: “This is utterly absurd. We are trying to tackle mass immigration, yet at every point we roll out the red carpet.”

In other news:

FOREIGNERS can use taxpayer-funded public transport designed to help hard-up families get to work, it was revealed last night.

FOREIGNERS can call the taxpayer-funded police if they are victims of crime, it was revealed last night.

Fruitcakes and loonies, bunch of clowns, BNP in blazers, can't be bothered to vet their candidates etc etc.

From The New Statesman:

John Cherry, Conservative county councillor for Midhurst, told the MoS:

"Ninety-seven per cent of pupils [at the new school in West Sussex] will be black or Asian. It depends what type of Asian. If they're Chinese they'll rise to the top. If they're Indian they'll rise to the top. If they're Pakistani they won't.

"There are certain nationalities where hard work is highly valued. There are certain nationalities where they are uncertain what this hard work is all about. If the children are not allowed out of the site then it will make them want to escape into the forest – it will be a sexual volcano. Stockwell is a coloured area – I have no problem with that. To be honest, I would far rather Durand took over a secondary school in London rather than shoving everybody here."

Fun Online Polls: Garage conversions and "the bloated welfare state"

The results to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

What do you see more often?

An integral garage converted into an extra room - 88%
A spare room converted into an integral garage - 12%

This ties in with my general observation of the world around me; I'd like to add that for every downstairs-room-converted-to-a-garage which I've seen, I've seen about ten integral-garages-converted-into-an-extra-room, if we could factor that in, the ratio between the two might be much, much higher.

Thanks to everybody who took part as usual.
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Dave Scotland left this highly inappropriate comment: "If we build more homes the nig nogs will come and fill them in no time."

Even if that were factually correct, that's not much of an argument, is it? You might as well say "There is no point improving our education system, as a load of foreigners will just come over here and send their kids to our schools", or "If we improved the NHS, then..." or "If we got crime down, then...".

If we take this Home-Owner-Ism to its logical conclusion, the government would be perfectly justified in allowing the country to go to wrack and ruin as a kind of poison pill defence against immigrants. Enforcing some kind of sensible immigration system is just one of many things which the government ought to be doing.
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I've been busy this weekend updating the workings on page 2 of the Citizen's Income Trust's pamphlet. Unsurprisingly, replacing the entire welfare and pensions system and various income tax/NIC reliefs like the personal allowance/primary threshold with a universal Citizen's Income/Citizen's Pension (set at current Income Support/Pensions Credit Minimum Guarantee rates) is as affordable now as it ever was, and that's before we factor in Laffer Effects.*

But one thing that is surprising is how much is spent on working age welfare. I've included just about everything you can think of: Income Support, JSA, ESA, Incapacity Benefit, Child & Working Tax Credits, Child Benefit, SMP, SSP, student grants and loan write-offs, other bits and pieces**. Remember that a large chunk of these (a third?) are paid to working families.

Can you guess what percentage of UK GDP they add up to?

Guess here or use the widget in the sidebar.

* Let's assume the revenue maximising income tax rate is 50%, in that case the benefit withdrawal rate which minimises the cash cost of welfare (or maximises the amount of welfare clawed back through means testing) must also be 50%. Current overall withdrawal rates for most household types are about 80% on anything up to a median sort of income.

** But not severe disability benefits or Housing & Council Tax Benefit.

A cow attack, NIMBYism and racist undertone, all in one short article.

Spotted by Duncan Stott in The Guardian:

Really, I'm just dredging up reasons not to care about the country and prepare myself for a post-Boles concrete future, when we won't have much countryside left. Nick Boles, planning minister, wants us to build on an extra 1,500 square miles of countryside.

Boles, for all his faults, merely stated that we could build another ten million homes if we were prepared to use up about three per cent of land which is currently undeveloped (or whatever the exact figures were). What sort of complete idiot do you have to be to describe the remaining fifty million acres of countryside as "not much"?

"Chimpanzee 'makes human gesture' at young visitor: Zoo at centre of intelligent design storm launches probe into apparent heresy"

From The Daily Mail

Regent's Park zoo launched an investigation today after a chimpanzee was pictured apparently making a 'human' gesture at a young visitor during a school trip yesterday.

The simian clearly raises its hands up under its armpits to apparently imitate a racist football fan while appearing to chant unintelligibly - yet menacingly - at local pupil Danny Welbeck.

The gesture threatens to re-ignite an ongoing row that has engulfed the zoologist community in recent years after the majority turned their backs on the theory of evolution, seeking to explain away the striking similarities between the behaviour of large apes and of human beings with the concept of 'intelligent design'.

A spokesman said: "London Zoo can confirm we are investigating an incident involving alleged human-like behaviour by one of the chimp's at yesterday's visit by St Custard's Junior School. We will be examining all available footage and ask anyone who can identify the monkey to contact us.

"London Zoo is committed to suppressing all evidence of ape-human similarities and if we have sufficient evidence we will take the strongest possible action, including chopping its head off and feeding it to the rival group in the next cage."

"Racism in banking still a significant problem, says report"

From the BBC:

Racism remains a "significant problem" in British banking despite improvements in recent years, according to a House of Commons committee report. MPs also said homophobia may now be the most prevalent form of discrimination.

The report responds to "continuing concerns" following the Kweko Aduboli case. John Whittingdale MP, chair of the inquiry, said: "Recent incidents of coloured bankers being used as scapegoats in the UK highlight that there remain significant problems."

Although LIBOR-fixing, PPI mis-selling and other abuses are rife in the City of London, and all trades are recorded in real time on computer systems, when it comes to making a token sacrifice, it is usually non-white bankers who are singled out, even when the bank concerned had been aware of, and tolerated, his activities for some considerable time.

Outside of the commercial banks, senior members of the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority are overwhelmingly "white, male and middle-aged".

The Financial Services Committee report said that behaviour and the atmosphere at trading floors and back offices had "changed hugely" since the 1970s and 80s "when racial and other forms of abuse were common". It added that several initiatives and charities such as Love Finance Hate Racism have helped to reduce racism where it is most prevalent - at the high street banks and online - but more still needs to be done.

I'm not racist, but...

"Obama's NOT the first black President"

From The Daily Mail:

It would seem that Newsweek’s latest cover showing President Obama wearing a baseball cap sideways and gold chains declaring him ‘The First Black President’ is not merely attention-grabbing but historically inaccurate too.

Critics and history buffs, quick to scorn the sensationalist cover, have pointed out that James Buchanan was likely the first black President more than a century ago. Rumours about Buchanan’s racial origin have circulated with historians determining that the fifteenth leader of the U.S was an Afro-American – and that the nation knew it.

"There can be no doubt that James Buchanan was black, before, during and after his four years in the White House. Moreover, the nation knew it, too." historian Jim Loewen wrote on History News Network in response to the news magazine’s daring cover.

Loewen points to a letter that Buchanan wrote to Mrs Roosevelt on May 13, 1844. In the missive Buchanan describes his loneliness after the local spicy chicken restaurant closed down.

Buchanan wrote: "I am now 'solitary and alone,' having no companions with whom to play dominoes and listen to 16-bar blues played on the unaccompanied and slightly-out-of-tune piano. I have gone a-visiting several other establishments, but have not succeeded with any one of them. I feel that it is not good for a brother to be alone; and should not be astonished to find myself married to some old honky who can nurse me when I am sick; provide nourishing but extremely bland dinners for me when I am well; and not expect from me any very ardent or romantic affection for her scrawny white ass."

Buchanan, who was in the White House from 1857 to 1861, was the only president who started life as a cotton picker.