Woman Calls Cops On Black Guy Because His Dog Humped Her Dog Horrors!

"Dog Park Debbie" calls the police to a dog park
because a black man's dog humped her dog

In a ridiculous video, one that might have racial issues like "Barbecue Becky," "Permit Patty" and "Cornerstone Caroline"  we have a white woman calling the cops on a black man at a dog park.

This time, it's because the guy's dog started trying to hump the woman's dog, as dogs tend to do. They don't always behave, do they?

The man got the dog off the woman's dog, and neither animal appears to have been harmed. The man, named Franklin Baxley, did have to get his dog off the woman's a couple other times. Later, the woman's dog did the same to Baxley's but I guess that's OK.

But in a classic overreaction, the woman called the Attleboro, Massachusetts police.

I don't know if the woman was being racist, because I don't have a lot of context from the video. But it appears to fit a pattern of white people calling the police on black people for just doing things that normal people do, like having a barbecue in the park, entering their own apartment building, or allowing their kid to sell bottled water on the sidewalk during a hot afternoon.

To Baxley, this did seem racial, and I can see why he thinks this way: He told Yahoo News: "The woman wanted to impress upon me that she was superior...Her first instinct was to call the police when in conflict with a black person."

This kind of thing just doesn't stop, does it?  I mean, the woman could have kept her dog away from Baxley's dog if she was that upset, but nope! First reaction is to call the police. I'm sure she's going to enjoy her 15 minutes of fame.

I'm sure the cops were a bit annoyed by the waste of time they had to endure sorting this out. Can we please not call the cops unless we have an actual emergency? Here's the video:

Scary Alabama Racist Newspaper Editorial Takes Us Back To The Jim Crow Days

Goodie Sutton, my nominee for the most racist newspaper
editor in the United States. 

UPDATE: Saturday, 2/23/19

So, a little karma happened with this story.

Under pressure, this racist loser has resigned. He's still not sorry for the editorial, but I love the deliciousness of this update.

The new publisher, owner and editor of the Democrat-Reporter is a woman named Elecia Dexter.

Oh, Dexter happens to be a black African-American woman.

Dexter says her understanding is that Sutton is actually still the owner of the paper. But regardless, this is definitely an improvement. It couldn't get any worse.

As for Sutton, he says he now has time to, as he says "drink beer and chase women."

Good luck with that, bubba.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

Racism is, of course, always bad.

There are different degrees of it, or at least different degrees of what is said out loud by racists.

A small town newspaper editor in Alabama, though, has gone full throated racist, and his words are jaw-droppingly horrifying. The editorial's headline: "Klan Needs To Ride Again"

This piece of, um, literature was recently published by a creep named Goodloe Sutton, who is the publisher of the Democrat-Reporter in Linden, Alabama.

As the Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser reports, Sutton is unrepentant and stands by his editorial.

Sutton begins with the source of his ire: "Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama."

Um, OK, if you say so.  Then this all turns very dark, very quickly. He blames the "socialist-communist ideology" for all this, and then pretty much applauds the KKK who once "rode through the night to frighten some evil doer. Sometimes they had to kill one or two of them but so what."

Sutton then dreams of the day in which the Klan heads north to "raid the gated communities. They call them compounds now."

Montgomery Advertiser reporter Melissa Brown went over to Linden to interview him about the editorial. During the interview, Sutton said, "If we could get the Klan to go up there and clean out D.C., we'd all be better off."

Brown asked what Sutton meant by that. He suggested lynching.

It gets even more off the rails. Here's another excerpt from the Montgomery Advertiser article:

"'We'll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them,' Sutton said.

When asked if he felt it was appropriate for the publisher of a newspaper to call for the lynching of Americans, Sutton doubled down on his position. 

'....It's not calling for the lynchings of Americans. These are socialist-communist we're talking about. Do you know what socialism and communism is?' Sutton asked."

Apparently, it's anybody who disagrees with him. And, to state the obvious, yes he is calling for the lynching of Americans.

Sutton goes on to say that the Klan is not racist and violent, hilariously comparing it to the NAACP.

As an aside, Sutton's newspaper used to be good. In the 1990s, the Democrat-Reporter got national acclaim for reporting on a corrupt sheriff in the area.

However, the Democrat-Reporter gained a reputation for racism and ugliness well before Sutton's recent editorial.  In recent years, readers were treated to headlines like "Homosexuals take black spotlight" and "Slavery was a good lesson for Jews."

I've been complaining that the boorish Trump administration has given racists, bigots, misogynists and the like "permission" to blurt out their awfulness in public rather than keep in hidden.

Sometimes I've been told I've been overstating the Trump influence on the worst of American society. I counter that this editorial bolsters my case. I have always thought there are people as odious as Sutton out there.   However, it seemed that they had largely gone silent, or crawled back into the woodwork.

They're back out. But maybe Trump has done us a favor. Through example, he has encouraged these lowlifes to come back out into the sunshine. Now we know they're there, and I hope we can deal with them more easily.

Point at them at object and perhaps, just maybe, they'll think twice about hurting other people. You can only hope.

SNL Has White Supremacists Moving To Vermont In Scary, Weird Scenario

A Saturday Night Live sketch a few weeks ago skewered
Vermont's whiteness. Funny, but unsettling

A few weeks ago, Saturday Night Live had a skit about a Neo-Confederate meeting that had us Vermonters especially unsettled.

The video featured a group of white supremacists having a meeting somewhere in the South.

The group leader wants to establish their own white settlement, a "our own place for our own people" with "an agrarian community where everybody lives in harmony, where every single person is white"

A member of the meeting raises his had pipes up: "Yeah, I know that place. That sounds like Vermont."  That's a definite laugh line, but geez.

The leader says he doesn't understand. He's talking about a place where even the people who wash the dishes and pick the fruit are white.

"Oh,  yeah, that's Vermont," the man responds. The leader grows suspicious of the man, especially when he says he's from the North. But the guy's white supremacist creds remain in place when he quickly explains he's from Boston. The whole group is satisfied with that.

"I'm talking about a place where a white man can take things he grew from the ground and trade things with another white man, who grew things from the ground."

Replies the northerner: "That's a farmer's market and they're all over Vermont."

Pretty soon, the groups is deciding that Vermont sounds like just the ticket. It's a place where "The leaves change color but the people never do."

In the end, it's settled. They're going to Vermont.

That's a bit chilling.  Especially since racism does seem to be alive and well in Vermont. Just take the recent case of Kiah Morris. She had been Vermont's only black legislator. She dropped her re-election campaign, then resigned after receiving racial threats.

Her house was broken into and swastikas were painted on trees near her property. The Vermont Attorney General's office is investigating.

Yeah, we're not always the liberal, welcoming place we want to think we are. In any event, I hope that white supremacists don't regard SNL as a documentary.

Here's the video:

The Ultimate Ugly American Arrested in Uganda

Ugly American racist Jimmy Taylor, in red shirt, was arrested
for assaulting hotel staff in Uganda. 

Earlier in August, an American named Jimmy Taylor from Arizona was arrested in Kampala, Uganda.

For good reason. For a full two minutes at least he went off on a hotel's staff for at least two minutes, knocking stuff off tables, assaulting them, yelling at them and using the N-word for good measure

It appears this tirade was all because a hotel room wasn't available for him.

Heavy.com describes the scene:

"You hate Jesus. You hate yourself. You hate me. You disgrace Jesus. Huh? Talk. Talk!" (Taylor yells). And then he punches the hotel front desk staffer in the face. The man restrains himself. Folds his arms and takes another hit. "Come on bitch. Come on, whore. You open my fxxxxxg room. I'll fxxxxg kill you. And he strikes the man again."

The kicker is this idiot is supposedly a Christian missionary, spreading the word of the Bible worldwide. I didn't think "fxxk" or the N-word were in the Bible, but what do I know?

For good measure, when Taylor was arrested, police said he "turned rowdy, uncontrollable and tried to disarm policemen."

 So not only do we have people in the United States feeling emboldened in this political climate to openly conduct racists attacks, now we're spreading that "joy" to the rest of the world.

Taylor claims to have PTSD and that allegedly is what triggered this outburst. I'm not convinced. I think he's just a jerk. The ulimate ugly American

Here's the video of this racist moron's antics in Uganda, if you can stand it:

"Black Panther" Opens To Boffo Reviews And Big Crowds, But Racists VERY Unhappy

It seems like everybody loves the new film "Black Panther,"
that is except a small group of pathetic little white supremacists.

The superhero movie "Black Panther"  is setting box office records for an opening week.  Critics LOVE the movie. I haven't seen it yet, but I will. It sounds terrific.  

However, this being the United States, the racists are trying to spoil the party. They always do. They very often fail, of course, so it makes it fun to mock these morons.

Still, it's incredibly disgusting we have to live with these white supremacists idiots. And I'm being understated when I say it like that.

It's important to check in with these odious morons, though, remind ourselves that we always must keep our guard up, and always resist the Nazis among us.

These scumbags started with Rotten Tomatoes reviews. They tried to make the "Black Panther" reviews really negative. I'll get into that first, then tell you even something worse.

Rotten Tomatoes is the online web site in which you, yes, you, can review movies. In general, Rotten Tomatoes is a fairly good indication of how much or little the general public likes a particular film.  That makes it a not bad guide to help you decide which movie you're going to see tonight.

Most Rotten Tomatoes critics, including the professional ones, thought "Black Panther" was terrific. In fact, it got the highest Rotten Tomatoes score for any superhero film.   As of Thursday, "Black Panther had a very nice 77 percent viewer approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Which means the racists failed again. They're so stupid.

As reported by CNN and numerous other media outlets, there was a move among the white supremacists among us.

Notice how the white supremacists tried to be cute. "Black Panther" is a Marvel Comic franchise. A lot of other popular movies come from the DC Comics franchise. The racists tried to spin this as just a friendly rivalry between Marvel and DC fans.

That element was probably in there, but I haven't heard of other organized movements on Facebook or elsewhere to discredit a superhero movie because of a comic book franchise competition.

As CNN says: "But given that "Black Panther" has an all-black cast and the storyline includes themes of race, many saw the move as more nefarious thatn just a friendly rivalry."

Then, of course it got worse.  As numerous outlets like Vox and  Huffington Post reported:

"Since Thursday, numerous false reports have bubbled up on social media claiming that white viewers were physically attacked by black fans at showings of the movie. Twitter and Facebook users have been taking images from unrelated incidents and reposting them, falsely claiming that they are photos of themselves or loved ones after racially motivated attacks."

I'm not sure of the purpose of these social media postings, other that to stir up the basest base of racists and Nazis, and to dupe the most gullible. And only the very most gullible, apparently.

The photos white people supposedly "beaten" by African-Americans at "Black Panther" showings come from such strange places and its so easy to trace them to their original, non-fake news sources.

One of them was a previously widely distributed photo of Rob Porter's ex-wife with a black eye.  Porter, you might recall, is the White House aide recently forced out of a job because of history with abuse of women.

Another fake photo was a still from the show "The Walking Dead." Another was a stock photo of a bloody paper towel.

The best revenge against this tiny army of small minded racists is how well "Black Panther" is doing at the box office.

As of Thursday, "Black Panther" is raking in the dough at the box office, and is destined to be one of the most lucrative movies on record, says Variety and many other media reports.

I'm sure almost everyone who goes to see "Black Panther" is not thinking about sticking it to the white supremacists. But in this context, it's still wicked fun to see this movie's popularity surge.

Leave It To Fox News To Complain About Diversity On U.S. Olympic Team

Fox News Vice President John Moody is very upset that
some of the United States athletes now competing in the
2018 Winter Olympics are not white and straight.
Apparently, in his mind, Olympics are for whites only.

Apparently, the white supremacists at Fox News are deeply upset by our U.S. Winter Olympics team.

A greater proportion of our team has more people of color, more people from the LGBTQ community and more people from different backgrounds than in past years.

It sounds to me like whoever deals with getting athletes on the U.S team might have looked to a broader population than usual to get the cream of the crop into the Olympics.

Or much more likely, the best athletes out there come from more diverse backgrounds than they used to. America is more diverse than it used to be, so this makes total sense.

But Fox News would beg to differ.

The U.S. Olympic team's motto is Faster, Higher, Stronger.  Period. Our best athletes are now competing in PyeongChang. Not our gayist, not our most African-American. Not our most Asian. Just our best.

Apparently, Fox News and its hard core racists, homeophobic fans really don't want the best of the best. As long as the atheletes are white and are not queer.

Fox News executive Vice President John Moody whined that that the U.S. Olympic Committee seems to want to change the above mentioned motto to "Darker, Gayer, Different."

Moody was terribly upset that the U.S. Olympic Committee has the gall to have qualified team members that might be African-American, Hispanic, Asian, gay, or simply not 100 percent straight and white.

"If your goal is to win medals, that won't work," Moody whined. "No sport that we are aware of awards points - or medals - for skin color or sexual orientation," he added.

"Were our Olympians selected because they're the best at what they do, or because they're the best publicity for our current obsession with having one each from Column A, B and C."?

African-American speed skater Shani Davis is not qualified
to be in the Olympics because he is black and only white athletes
are good enough, says Fox News Vice President John Moody.
By the way, Davis already has four Olympic medals
under his belt. 

And there you have it.  White supremacy at work. What Moody basically said is that anyone who is not white and straight has lesser abilities and skills white people.

 It's unfathonable to Moody that an African American, Asian, gay, whatever, could possibly have the ability to win a gold medal at the Olympics.

That's totally in league with Trump fans and avid followers of Fox News. A bit ignorant, to say the least.

A day or so after Moody's column appeared, Fox News removed it from its web site, saying Moody is just a longtime mucky muck there who doesn't have editorial control. Because of his longevity there, they didn't really vet or edit it carefully.

"John Moody's column does not reflect the views or values of Fox News and has been removed," according to a statement Fox released to the media Friday. 

Riiiiight.

Unsurprisingly, there was quite a bit of pushback against Moody's column before it was yanked. "These athletes are at the Olympics because they already won by qualifying to represent the United States on the world's stage; and they did so despite facing discrimination from places like Fox News throughout their careers," said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

".....to suggest that race, sexuality, or gender orientation are the reasons these incredible athletes made the cut is insulting, repugnant and dismissive of a lifetime of hard work," said Catherine Sakimur of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

The column is off the web site, but it did its job. It was a nice serving of red meat for the white supremacists, alt-right, aging racists and raving lunatics that make up the core of Trump's base.I don't think we'll ever change the minds of this very base Trump base. But the louder the rest of us are when we resist these idiots, the better.  

Why I And Many Others Are Disgusted With White Evangelicals, One Of Worst Groups In U.S.

This cartoon pretty much sums up the hypocrisy of white
evangelicals nowadays. 

Liberals and Democrats have in the past several years tried to figure out how to deal with Evangelicals.

Especially white ones.

Is there something Evangelicals have in common with liberals? Is there a moral compass that liberals and evangelicals have in common?  Can these groups work together?

Um, no.

Now that Donald Trump has been president for a year, a lot of white evangelicals have shown their true colors. Gone is the assumption they're a "moral" group, even if a lot of us disagree with their positions on gays, feminists, abortion, marriage and such.

White evangelicals, at least the ones who speak for them, are hypocritical creeps. We are better off totally ignoring them. Or better, relentlessly mocking them.

For one thing, it's clear that probably a majority of white evangelicals are also white supremacists.

I can't state this case any better than John Pavlovitz, who recently penned a real stemwinder of a case against white evangelicals in a scathing open letter to them. It's so worth the read.

This is how he opens his devastating missive:

"I need to tell you something. People have had it with you.

They're done. 

They want nothing to do with you any longer, and here's why; 

They see your hypocrisy, your inconsistency, your incredibly selective mercy, and your thinly veiled supremacy. 

For eight years they watched you relentlessly demonize a black President, a man faithfully married for 26 yers, a doting father and husband without a hint of moral scandal or the slightest whiff of infidelity."

Pavolvitz, along with so many of the rest of us, noticed the black president Obama never got prayers, was never welcomed to their Christian organizations, was never given the benefit of the doubt, never received any kind of affirmation of his humanity, by white evangelicals.

And then there's Trump.

"You openly give a 'mulligan' to a white Republican man so riddled with depravity, so littered with extramarital affairs, so unapologetically vile, with such a vast resume of moral filth - that the mind boggles. And the change in you is unmistakable,. It has been an astonishing conversion to behold: a being born again."

Trump's sin, lack of repentance, and lack of compassion doesn't matter. Which is why they rest of us have had it with white evangelicals. As Pavolvitz says, we recognize the toxic source of your duality.

"They see that pigmentation and party are your sole dieties. They see that you aren't interested in perpetuating the love ofGod or emulating the heart of Jesus.

They see that you aren't burdened to love the least, or to be agents of compassion, or to care for your Muslim, gay, African, femail or poor neighbors as yourself."

No, white evangelicals live smugly, often in their gated communities.

White evangelicals always have felt a sense of persecution. That everybody is out to "get" them. Everybody wants to supposedly squelch their religious freedom.  What they really want is for everybody to be just like them, to do just as they say and do. There is no room for dissent, in their warped minds. Nobody can be who they are, what they are, in white evangelicals' mind. It's their way or the highway.

Screw you on that one.

One of the most despised leaders of all these white evangelicals is Tony Perkins. (To be fair, the white evangelicals love him.)

A former evangelist, Frank Schaeffer, was recently on A.M Joy - Joy Reid hosting -  and described Perkins as follows, and he could also be describing the bulk of these morons:

"Tony Perkins forgot his own theology and replaced it with a theology of revenge on people he disagrees with politically. That's what's going on here. This is the revenge of white evangelical right-wingers. Who they want to punch in the mouth is not just black Americans but, to put it in the words of the President of the United States, those who live in shithole countries. So they're willing to put up with anything when it comes to moral degradation to see those ends achieved."

White evangelicals seem willing to suspend any kind of disbelief to push their racist, pro-Trump narrative.  So they double down on their odd, awful beliefs. Which isn't good for this movement's future, let me tell ya.

Some white evangelicals, to their immense credit, see the rot and hypocrisy and are leaving this group. Five Thirty Eight noted:

"After dominating much of American politics for the past 40 years, white evangelical Protestants are now facing a sharp decline. Nearly one-third of white Americans raised in evangelical Christian households leave their childhood faith. About 60 percent of those who leave end up joining another faith tradition, while 40 percent give up on religion altogether. The rates of disaffiliation are even higher among young adults."

Five Thirty Eight goes on:

"......white evangelical population in the U.S. has fallen over the past decade, dropping from 23 percent in 2006 to 17 percent in 2016." Five Thirty Eight also notes the remaining white evangelicals are aging, with their average age definitely going up.

One more bit of info from Five Thirty Eight:

"Other research also suggests that one of the prime motivators for leaving a religion is belief incompatibility. A 2016 PRRI stuy found that the most common reason people give up on their childhood faith is that they no long believe in its teachings. Twenty-nine percent of Americans who have left their formative religion explictly mention negative teachings about gay and lesbian people as a proximate cause for their disaffiliation."

Things will only get worse for the remaining white evangelicals. People who can think logically are leaving, and the hypocrisy they've shown under Trump will only make the stampede out the door faster.

White evangelicals will alway think the larger society is "out to get them." Unlike the past, it's actually true now. Few, if any people want to force them to give up their beliefs. It's just that not many people want to join their bandwagon. Not many people will be upset if the evangelical movement withers and dies.

Politicians of all stripes quaked in their boots if evangelicals objected to them.  Going forward, political leaders will dismiss them as an unimportant fringe group. As long as Trump remains in office, white evangelicals will have a voice and influence, just like other white supremacists.

After Trump's gone, white evangelicals will be out in the political wilderness. Where they belong.

A Guy Named Carl Paladino Is New York's Biggest Jerk

The Jerk Of The Week Award Goes To
Carl Paladino. Congratulations! 

When given an opportunity to make a statement or a joke in public, don't be a gross jerk.

That nugget of advice might seem obvious to most of us, but not a guy named Carl Paladino who obviously didn't get the memo.

This all started when a western New York publication,  Buffalo ArtVoice, had one of those end-of-the-year easy features where they ask people in their community wishes for the new year.

Practically every news outlet does this,  and the answers are usually heartfelt wishes or a joke.

ArtVoice asked numerous prominent people around Bufflalo, "What would you most like to happen in 2017?" and "What would you like to see go away in 2017?"

None of the answers were particularly newsworthy except for  those by Carl Paladino, who is on the Buffalo School Board and was a New York co-chairman of Donald Trump's election campaign earlier this year. .

For 2017, Paladino wished that Barack Obama would contract mad cow disease and die after having sex with a Hereford.

Barrel of laughs right?

Paladino got even worse when he described what he'd like to see go away in 2017. He answered, "Michelle Obama. I'd like her to return to bein a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla."

Incredibly racist and crude right?

Not to old Carl here.

Paladino later confirmed to the Buffalo News that he made those statements. "Yeah, I'm not politically correct.....They asked what I want and I told them."

He later put out a statement that read in part, "Merry Christmas and tough luck if you don't like my answer."

To nobody's surprise, not many people do like his answer. Trump's transition team hated it, along with pretty much everybody in New York from the governor on down.

Even Paladino's own son, who now runs the real estate firm that Carl founded, posted a message on Facebook distancing him and his company from dad's stupidity.

The son, William, said in part, "We do not condone the statements made about the President of the United States and his wife. They were disrespectfu and absolutely unnecessary."

Fellow members of the Buffalo School Board, which serves a student population that has lots of racial minorities, are trying to find ways to kick Paladino off the board.

It's about time. Paladino has a long history of being a jerk, including in 2010 when he unsuccessfully (thank gawd) ran for governor of New York. At the start of and during that campaign, Paladino e-mailed racist and pornographic images that apparently somehow to his mind showed his intention to run for office.

Whatever.

Yeah, Paladino is an irrelevant jerk. Part of me was tempted to just ignore him.

But as I always say, it's good to shine a cleansing light on the most toxic of people and public figures like Paladino.

I still feel like I have to take a shower after writing about this idiot, though.

Media Spotlight Keeps Racially Charged W. Va. Official Out Of a Job

Pamela Taylor is apparently back on the job as
director of a West Virginia non-profit agency,
despite some recent racist comments she made on Facebook.

12/27/16 UPDATE:

Well, it looks like old Pamela Taylor won't keep her job after all.

Thanks, I believe to that Charleston Gazette-Mail follow up story I describe below, the light of publicity was too much.

As described below, Taylor lost her job at a West Virginia agency for racist comments about Michelle Obama.

When the media spotlight faded, she was quietly reinstated.

But word got out. Now we find out that the West Virginia governor announced that Taylor won't be working at the non-profit center that uses state money and helps the poor.

The move, the gov said, was to ensure Taylor's now former employer follow non-discrimination rules.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

We see this all the time:

Someone is caught on social media,  like Facebook or Twitter, saying something awful, racist, wrong, or anything totally reprehensible.

The scene then plays out in a familiar way: There's a public outcry, the bad person is mocked, and then they lose their job or something else important to them.

Sometimes the reaction is overkill, sometimes it's not. But what happens when the media spotlight goes away?

As a West Virginia case proves, the offending person is often quietly reinstated and things go on as if they never happened.

According to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Pamela Taylor, who last month referred to First Lady Michelle Obama in a Facebook post as "an ape in heels,"  is back on the job as Director at the non-profit Clay County Development Corp.

The Development Corp provides services to seniors and financial aid to low income people in the region.

The entire quote from Taylor on Facebook referred to the incoming First Lady Melania Trump: "It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady back in the White House. I'm tired of seeing a (sic) Ape in heels."

I'll leave it to you to decide who is more classy: Melanie Trump or Michelle Obama.

Still, the ape crack was pretty racist, though Taylor later said in an apology she isn't racist.

OK, then.

Anyway, Taylor's reinstatement came even after a stern letter from the West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services warned the Development Corp that "any discrimination of staff or the customers (they) serve" could cause the agency to lose funding from state and federal agencies, the Gazette-Mail reported.

The First Lady remark didn't fit the criteria of discriminating against people they serve, but the Clay County Development Corp is clearly skating on thin ice.

After Taylor made her remarks, a local mayor, Beverly Whaling, responded to Taylor's Facebook post, "You made my day, Pam."

The mayor then resigned amid the outcry.

Before us liberals get too smug, some of us are pretty bad, too. Both Taylor and Whaling received numerous death threats after this news came out, and somebody mailed in a white powder to scare people associated with the two women.

I'm not sure why people send death threats to anyone who does something stupid, racists or wrong, but that's just wrong. At least as wrong or more so than Taylor's ugly racist comments.

As is always the case in these kinds of situations, the Clay County Development Corp refused to respond to any questions from the Gazette-Mail, because of the way their M.O. works: Shut the press, the media and the social media out and we can keep doing what we're doing, no matter how creepy the director is.

I'm sure many of the people the Clay County Development Corp serves are now pretty leery of this organization, especially racial minorities that need or want their help.

Still, I can't wait to read future Facebook posts from Taylor, now that she's back safe in her job.

Kafka Lives In Roadside Drug Testing Kits

These two people were held in an Arkansas jail for
two months because authorities thought baking soda
found in their truck was cocaine, and didn't bother
to properly test it to prove their suspicions. 

A couple from Utah learned the hard way that in today's America, if you have a baggie full of baking soda in your truck and the cops decide it's cocaine, then it's cocaine and you're in a heap of trouble.

Talk about living in a post-fact world!  

According to KUTV in Salt Lake City, Gail Griffin and her husband Wendell Harvey are truck drivers who haul explosives for the military.

At least they did until the fine law enforcement officials in Arkansas went into stubborn batshit crazy mode over a couple bags of baking soda Harvey had in the truc.

As KUTV describes it: "They have top security clearance, and they've never been in trouble with the law. So in May, while driving through Arkansas, they weren't concerned when police stopped them in Fort Chaffee."

They should have been concerned, it turns out.

Police found the three baggies full of baking soda. The cops used a roadside drug testing kit to see what was in the baggies. The widely used drug testing kit is known to be wildly inaccurate, coming up with zillions of false positives, but it's used by lots of cop shops anyway.

The road side drug testing kit decided that the baking soda was $3,000 worth of cocaine, so police locked the couple up.

For two and a half months if you can believe that, because nobody in Arkansas would do a more accurate follow up test to see if the baking soda was really cocaine and not, you know, baking soda.

Only after lots of pleading from the Arkansas Public Defender's office that the stuff was tested. According to television station KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas, the couple didn't have phone numbers memorized and so were not able to call relatives for help getting an attorney.

No easy phone access was provided. Prosecutors dragged their feet getting the substance authorities found in the truck tested correctly. And you guessed it, the powdery stuff in the baggies was baking soda.

By the way, the truck drivers arrested were African-American. This being Arkansas, there is the possibility of racism, though I know I can't prove that here

The Fort Chaffee Police Department is basically shrugging its shoulders at locking an innocent couple up for more than two months and quite possibly destroying their livlihoods.

Fort Chaffee Police say they tested three times using the faulty device and it came up cocaine three times. Good enough for them.

Sure, hold the couple until you get a more sophisticated test, but why did authorities wait two months to do it, and only when prodded?

A reporter for KUTV got his hands on one of these road side test kits and received instruction on how to use it. He tested common household items like Comet cleanser, aspirin, cold medicine and chocolate. Four of the ten tests he did came up (false) positive for illicit drugs.

Now that's a REALLY inaccurate testing device!

Even if Arkansas authorities were trying to demonstrate how "tough" they were on drug criminals, they wasted a lot of Arkansans' tax money on incarcerating the pair.

Says KUTV: 

"As for Harvey and Griffin, they only recently got their truck back from Arkansas authorities. But they say the truck has major damage that requires repairs. 

The couple also said they have not worked since they were released from jail. They said they are still trying to get their security clearance reinstated, and that they are running out of money.

Harvey said what is expecially concerning to him and his wife is the fact that other people may have been victimized by the test."

Or by Arkansas and perhaps other states. As I said, I can certainly see holding a suspect for a day or two until it's determined whether the stuff they had was drugs.

Shouldn't Arkansas authorities compensate Harvey and Griffin, since they were punished severely for not doing anything wrong?

I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Couple Upset Restaurant Posted "No Tip To Non-Citizens" Note They Left On Receipt

The nasty note left on a restaurant receipt. Add caption

Nasty notes written by customers on restaurant receipts is a reliable source of outrage, and we have another.

According to the Washington Post, Sadie Karima Elledge was working in her grandfather's Harrisonburg, Virginia restaurant last Monday. A couple Sadie served did not leave a tip when they ate there, and instead wrote a note on the receipt that read, "We only tip citizens." 

Yeah, real nice. Just that stupid hostility to anybody who is non-white because 'Merica is for Whites Only! Or something like that. 

By the way, Sadie was born in the United States and is of Honduran and Mexican descent.

Sadie's grandfather, John Elledge, who is white, posted a photo of the couple's nasty note on Facebook and captioned it "You are a complete and total piece of dung."

A little too polite in my opinion, but what the heck.

Then again, Mr. Elledge also had this to say on Facebook, according to the Washington Post:

"I'd happily do the jail time if I could get just one solid punch in to the face of the son of a bitch who paid for his meal at the luncheonette where my granddaughter works and left the receipt for her with a note saying 'Sorry, we only tip citizens."

Sadie is universally known in town as a fine young woman. She recently graduated from a local high school and is set to start classes at a community college soon.


Sadie Karima Elledge got a nasty note
from a customer due to her heritage. A

As is often the case with these rude receipts, which I've written about before, this one caught fire on social media.  

The people that left the nasty "citizen" note also saw it on social media and --- poor babies --- they are mad, MAD I tell ya!  

The couple returned to the restaurant and complained four digits of their credit card were on the Facebook post (turned out it wasn't their card).

But they were equally mad about having their note out there for all the world to see. You can see the signature Ada M. Doriot on the receipt.

The guy yelled at Mr. Elledge, but otherwise didn't get much resolved. "The guy, he was being really belligerent," Elledge told the Washington Post.

The woman half of the couple asked why he posted it, as if it wasn't obvious.

By the way, the couple is not invited back to the restaurant.

Maybe this couple wants to go back to the days of the whites only lunch counters?

I think maybe they should eat out less often and just stay home in front of the TV. Maybe while watching white supremecists videos.





 .”

"Make America White Again" Politician Has Other Stupid Things To Say, Too

 A Tennessee politician who has LOTS of stupid
things to say put up this annoying billboard.  

Rick Tyler certainly caused a splash this week when he put up a billboard in Polk County Tennessee that says "Make America White Again."

Tyler is running for to be a U.S. Congressman, representing Tennessee's 3rd District. Almost nobody thinks he'll win that seat, which is a good thing.

Beyond the extreme offensiveness of Tyler's billboard, we can also bask in the shining stupidity of his thoughts, his quotes and his campaign web site.

First of all, Tyler told television station WRCB in Chattanooga that he has no hatred for "people of color" but that the sign's message is that America should go back to a "1960s Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It To Beaver time when there were no breaks-ins, no violent crime, no mass immigration."

Yes, Ozzie and Harriet  and Leave It To Beaver were pleasant, calm and um, pretty white, but has anyone clued Tyler in that they were TV shows. As in fiction. As in not reality.  As in viewers' escape from their day-to-day trouble.

No mass immigration? I seem to recall at that time, America saw an influx of Cubans - decidely nonwhite people coming to our shores and living here. I'm glad we welcomed those Cubans fleeing Castro's repression, but still, no immigration?

No violent crime? The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet was on TV from 1952 to 1966. To pick one year during that show's run, the murder rate in 1960 was 5.1 per 100,000 in the United States, according to Infoplease, citing statistics from the FBI.

The murder rate in 2014, Tyler's much hated modern era, was lower than in 1960, at 4.5 per 100,000 says Infoplease

OK, this next one is a smaller point, but maybe Tyler is more impressed with himself than others.

Television station WTVC in Chattanooga took a peek at Tyler's web site and found some real gems. Including this take on his billboard:

"With its towering and massive stature, the billboard sign is difficult to ignore an dits message comes across as authorative and influential."

First of all, the billboard looks a little small and lame, judging from the photos. And was Tyler just trying to ridiculously channel the 1988 song "Nothing But Flowers" by the Talking Heads.

After all, that song has the following lyric:

"Years ago, I was an angry young man
And I'd pretend that I was a billboard
Standing tall, by the side of the road.
I fell in love with a beautiful highway."

Kind of the same message as Tyler's, no?

In ever-more flowery language (Tyler needs an editor!) he goes on on his web site:

"The Make America White Again billboard advertisement will cut to the very core and marrow of what plagues us as a nation. As Anne Coulter so effectively elucidates in her book, "Adios America," the overhall of Amerca's immigration law in the 1960s has placed us on an inevitable course of demise and destruction.

Yes, the cunning globalist/Marxist social engineers have succeeded in destroying that great bulwark against statist tyranny, the white American super majority. Without its expedited restoration, little hope remains for the nation as a whole."

Wow, quite a helping of word salad there, Ricky!

So that strange performance artist Ann Coulter is right up there with the most classic of American writers writing about America? Right up there with Mark Twain, Robert Frost, Walt Whitman and John Steinbeck, huh?

You're also telling us that those Mexicans and other Latin American who streamed across our borders, either legally or illegally, was some evil plot by some Marxists to create tyranny in the U.S.

But what of the white Americans who seemed intent on tyranny. Does the name George Wallace ring a bell? How about Joseph McCarthy? J. Edgar Hoover?

Of course, Tyler's "Make America White Again" billboard is a play on Donald Trump's campaign catchphrase "Make America Great Again."

Tyler's an enthusiastic Trump supporter, but it's telling that a lot of people, including a pretty good sized number of Trump enthusiasts, really hated Tyler's billboard.

Here's a great example from WTVC's Facebook page which lists viewer comments:

Don Tate said, "As a Trump supporter, that is a poor excuse of a human to put a sign up like that. But that's the wonderful thing about freedom of speech. At least you know what's really in their heart."

True, that.

Tyler is a fringe candidate who will never be elected, so the temptation is to ignore him. But it's always best to look under rocks and into dark corners to see what kind of pestulence and rot is in there.

Because of if you catch it early and bring it to the light of day, you can disinfect it pretty quickly so it doesn't cause more damage.

Indeed, Tyler faces a backlash, as you might expect. The billboard has been taken down and pretty much everybody is boycotting the local restaurant he owns.

I  hope the fine folks of Polk County, Tennesee find a great candidate among the many who are ruming. I'm sure you can find somebody better than Tyler.

Black Lives Matter Everywhere; Vermont Needs That Reminder, Too

Part of a demonstration against racism in St Albans,
Vermont on Wednesday. Photo by Morgan True/Vermont Digger. 

I've lived in Vermont my entire life (so far!) and I must admit a dirty, big secret about my state

There's a lot of racists here.

There's a lot of racists everywhere, but some people from outside Vermont think the Green Mountain State is a liberal utopia of understanding, brotherhood and sisterhood and kumbaya.

True, most of us here in Vermont are not racists, are nice people, who try to do the right thing, who worry about racial injustice. A number of Vermonters work tirelessly to combat racism.

Then you get displays like we had yesterday in the community where I live, St. Albans, Vermont. Which proves there are a fair number of bigots here, too.

A relatively small number of African-Americans go the local high school, called Bellows Free Academy.

Those African-Americans said racial tension is a problem at the school, so they held a rally in downtown St. Albans calling attention to this issue.

According to Vermont Digger, the demonstration did not go well at all, but the events of the day did prove the students' point: Racism is alive and well in Vermont, as it is pretty much everywhere in the nation.

Here's what happened during the demonstration, writes Morgan True of Vermont Digger: 

"A young man drove past the rally with a Confederate flag mounted to the bed of his pickup truck; others drove past givin demonstrators the middle finger. A group of white students who gathered around another pickup truck pantomimed shooting guns at demonstrators."

Obviously, the yahoos who did this kind of thing are not representative of the majority of Vermonters. But it proves quite a bit of work still needs to be done in terms of race relations.

One of the demonstration's organizers, Ebony Nyone, says her nephew is racially harassed at school, and people often use racial slurs.  

A pickup truck with a Confederate flag drives
past an anti-racism demonstration in St. Albans,
Vermont Wednesday. Photo by Morgan True
of Vermont Digger.  

There is one student in particular, she says, that keeps bringing a Confederate flag to school in an effort to harass black students.

Part of the problem, Nyone told Vermont Digger, is school officials don't often understand how racism manifests itself. When an African-American student finally retaliates or reacts, it's them that get punished or suspended, and the racist taunter goes free.

Vermont Digger also interviewed a guy named Richard Miller, who owns Miller's Automotive near Bellows Free Academy. in St. Albans.

He turned out to be not an example of hate-inspired racism, but perhaps maybe a type borne of ignorance. 

Vermont has one of the smallest proportions of African-Americans of any in the nation.  I wonder if some people here, especially in rural areas, meet few African-Americans, cling to stereotypes and what they think is the proper "role" for blacks.

If Vermont Digger's reporting is correct, Miller might be that type. He appears not to like uppity blacks, as the vernacular in these situations goes.

"'I'm not a racist person, but the black man has brought a lot of his misery on himself,' Miller said. 'They got this big chip on their shoulder and they're just daring someone to knock it off,' he said looking on in disgust at the protest from his garage window.

'I've got black friends,' Miller said. 'You know what he would call them people? Niggers.' he railed, gesturing at the demonstrators across the street. 'He's a good guy, and he says I've ot all kinds of whiae friends and I've never been called a nigger. You know why? Because I don't act like a nigger.'"

I guess demonstrating against racism makes you unacceptable, in Miller's opinion.

Miller also told Vermont Digger that white people are now the 'lowest on the totem pole'

Hmm. Interesting theory.

Yep, we have some work to do in terms of race relations, don't we?

Oh, and by the way, remind me not to get my truck fixed at Miller Automotive. If he has that attitude toward blacks, imagine what he thinks about a gay guy like me.
 

Why Do Terrorist Threats Bring Out The Crazies?

Some random thoughts on the responses to the world's growing terrorist threat, and related news:

REFUGEES:  OK, I totally understand the desire to vet any potential refugees coming here from Syria, to make sure they're really just families fleeing war and violence and depravation. Makes sense to me.

But, as always, we have politicians going over the top with this one.

The one that made me groan the most came from U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Alabama, according to Think Progress.

As Think Progress reported, Brooks thinks all those refugees want to come to the United States because they're a bunch of greedy welfare queens.

"We're paying them about $15,000 a year in free health care, free food, free shelter, free clothing, free transportation...That answers very quickly why so many of them want to come to the United States of America.

"We're paying them to come here....It'a a paid vacation!"

I don't know the precise details of what benefits refugees who arrive in the United States get, but somehow I think a family fleeing bombs and machine guns aren't just looking for a pleasant weekend getaway on Dauphin Island.

Besides, why all the focus on refugees? If I were a terrorist wanting to cause mayhem in the United States, I'd get here on a tourist or student visa. Much less vetting there. Why not scream and holler about those visas?

Just a theory, but maybe because tourist and student visas bring in money? And refugees, at least when they first get here and are not employed yet, cost money? Is this really about economics and not security?

Just askin'.

THOSE CELEBRATIONS IN JERSEY CITY: Much has been made in the past couple of days about Donald Trump's assertion that "thousands" of Muslims in Jersey City, New Jersey celebrated as they watched the Twin Towers fall during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Of course, that didn't happen, but here's the mystery: Every time Trump tells a whopper like that, he gets more popular. Do that many people just want to hear this fiction to reinforce their own wackadoodle opinions?

Of course, Trump's campaign manager has figured out why we haven't seen film of these celebrations. It turns out the main stream media is colluding to suppress the videos, thereby tensuring an establishment candidate like Jeb Bush is elected instead.

Boy, this guy doesn't know how journalists operate. If such a video exists and a journalist found it, they'd be blasting it out far and wide. It would be a career making scoop.

WHAT ABOUT THE WHITE TERRORISTS?   Everybody is rightly worried about the possibility of Islamic terrorists causing mayhem in the United States. It's also a legitimate argument whether President Obama's administration is doing enough to prevent that type of thing.

It seems we're too dismissive of white male terrorists in our own country, though. True, how do you define terrorism? Does it include every person who causes mayhem, like the movie theater shooting in Colorado a couple of years ago?

Or must it have a political agenda. Even if you go by that definition, there's plenty of worry to go around about some white, super right wing men in America. Tim McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 comes immediately to mind.

Then there's the guy who shot up the Charleston, South Carolina church in June and killed nine people because racism. And just this morning, we learned some white supremists shot and wounded Black Lives Matters protestors in Minneapolis a few nights ago. 

Obviously, I don't have the skill and ability to tamp down terrorism and all the societal and political complications that go with it

But I just think those three things I just described are among the things we should be at least thinking about.

Michigan Cops, DA Wants To Ruin Black College Student's Life Just Because

DeJuawn Wallace being arrested in a February traffic
stop, from a police dash cam. He didn't pull
over immediately, but continued to drive
to a well-lit area, for safety. Cops
and a prosecutor object to this.  

UPDATE: 
As expected because of the negative publicity and the fact that even prosecuting the case made prosecutors a laughing stock, they dropped the charged Thursday agains DaJuawn Wallace.

His "crime," as you'll read below in the original post, was being cautious.

But as the Huffington Post points out, Prosecutor Christopher Boyd offered a plea deal for Wallace to plead guilty to a lesser charge, before the publicity over this stupidity blew up in Boyd's face, and he had to drop the charges.

However, Boyd and very many other prosecutors offer "plea deals" to people charged with crimes, even though many of these people might not have actually committed any crimes.

But, the defendents are often poor and don't have the resources to fight the bogus charges. Or, they've had previous run-ins with the law and realize nobody will believe they are innocent.

Prosecutors usually occupy elected positions. The prosecutors offer these bogus plea deals to innocent defendents because it gives them a higher conviction rate, making them more appealing next time they're up for re-election.

While there are some damn good, honest prosecutors out there, a large number of them, apparently, think their career and their bragging rights is worth ruining the lives of many innocent people by giving them bogus crime records.

One researcher estimates there might be as many as 20,000 people in jail serving time or crimes they did not commit. And some of those crimes actually happened, but were committed by someone else who is still out in the streets.

It's just easier for prosecutors to grab the low hanging fruit and win easy prosecutions against innocent people. Again, just to advance their careers.

Absolutely shameful.


PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

One dark early morning in February, DaJuawn Wallace, 24, was driving along a very poorly lit road in Kockville Township, Michigan.

Suddenly, the blue lights of a police car flashed in back of him.

Wallace knew that there had been incidents in the area in which people pretending to be cops, complete with blue lights pull people over and rob them or even worse.

Wallace said he signaled to the cop that he would keep driving - slowly - until he arrived at a safer, brightly lit area.

People are often advised to do this.  In and near Detroit, there have been recent cases of people impersonating police and stopping people to rob them.

A mile and half down the road, Wallace pulled into the glare of a brightly lit Sam's Club parking lot and stopped.

The cop decided to charge him with a felony count of fleeing and eluding police for not pulling over sooner, reports the Michigan news site MLive.com

This despite the explanation from Wallace. The DA "generously" offered a deal in which Wallace could plead guilty to a misdemeanor with a delayed sentence, meaning the charges would be dismissed if he completed a one-year probation.

But if he does that, he probably would lose his job and almost definitely his college financial aid.

Saginaw County Chief Prosecutor Christoher Boyd said when a police officer in a official police cruiser orders you to stop uou must. "You don't get a driver's license and get to pick what rules you are going to follow and what rules you are not going to follow," Boyd said, as reported at MLive.com.

Well, Wallace DID stop, once he got to a well-lit area, and he didn't try to speed off and outrun the cop. He just didn't know if he was about to be robbed or not. So I guess if you're a young black man in Michigan, you don't get the choice of trying not to be a victim of crime.

Nobody has come up with evidence so far that Wallace did anything other than seek a well lit, public place. The only reason why cops stopped him in the first place is because his car resembled one that had just driven on a sidewalk at a nearby college. It turns out, the sidewalk driver wasn't Wallace.

So what's Boyd's deal? Does he just never want to "lose" a case? Maybe his ego is too fragile to give up on a prosecution when facts present themselves?

Or is Wallace an uppity black kid. After all, he's pursuing a Master's degree in college. You don't want any n*****s being successful, right Prosecutor Boyd? God forbid a white guy like you lets a black guy find success.

The above paragraph might be an over the top accusation. I sure hope it is.

Nonetheless, Mother Jones reported today that the vast majority of prosecutors in the nation are white men. Obviously, most of them aren't racist. Still, when 79 percent of prosecutors are white men, and 14 states have an all white male prosecuting lineup, you do want to see a little more diversity.

This week, the Michigan case has suddenly gotten lots of publicity. When bad PR  happens, the prosecutor will try to find a face saving way out in which Wallace doesn't end up with problems concerning his job or school financial assistance.   He'll just got some sort of toothless warning.

One sign that things might work out in Wallace's favor is public support. MLive.com has an update saying there will be a rally in his behalf tomorrow.

But who knows how many other people get in trouble like Wallace did? For doing something innocent, or at least benign, I bet a lot of people have their lives ruined by the occasional overzealous cop or prosecutor.

Time to fix this problem, maybe?

My Favorite Sportscaster Strikes Again, This Time Taking On Texas Racism

WFAA-TV sportscaster Dale Hansen brilliantly
unpacks what's behind a racist moment during
a high school basketball game in a Texas suburb  

I rarely pay attention to sports in Texas. I don't search out sports anchors on Texas television stations.

With the exception of Dale Hansen. The sports desk chief at WFAA-TV in Dallas is brilliant.

I first saw him in action a little over a year ago, when football player Michael Sam came out as gay.

Hansen, a gruff white-haired no-nonsense type of guy, had a perfect reaction to people who were appalled that a football player was gay.

Basically he wondered how men who assault women, drive drunk and kill other people on the road, are caught with prostitutes in hotel rooms and that type of thing are welcome in the NFL, but a guy who says he loves another man goes too far.

Hansen said this in conservative Texas, by the way.

Our sportscaster Hansen is back again. This time, a high school basketball game in suburban Flower Mound, Texas featured teenagers holding two signs next to each other as their school faced off against a predominately black team.

One sign said "White." The other said "Power."

Lovely.

Hansen was back on WFAA last week with another excellent rant over this one. As Talking Points Memo noted, he blasted prents in Flower Mound who said the signs were just an accidental paring of signs alongside each other.

He remembed as a kid growing up in Iowa, his father would always call black people the n-word, but still spoke highly of a black family in the town that everyone knew and liked. He said his mind was twisted by his father's casual dismissal of African-Americans, and parents in Flower Mound were doing the same.

"Kids have to be taught to hate it's our parents and grandparents, and our teachers and coaches, too, who teach us to hate....Kids become the product of that environment. I was. And they are.

"I changed and they can, too. But not if we try to defend what you cannot defend and not if we stay silent and think taking their signs away is doing enough.

"the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil but by those who watch them," Hansen concluded, quoting Albert Einstein.

Predictably, the comments section of the YouTube video of Hansen's editorial is full of racist, ignorant comments, but at least there are some thoughtful ones, too.

I'm also happy when sportscasters like Hansen focus on the ethics and morals of people in sports. A lot of people look up to athletes as role models. That's a cliche, but a true one. So they ought to be held to some sort of standard.

When Hansen finished his on-air discussion, one of the other anchors said Hanson was sure to end up with a very full email in box. I'm sure that's true.

Somehow, I doubt Hansen will mind all that much.

Here's the video, totally worth watching:

Zendaya/Rancic: TV Host Demonstrates How To Make A Proper Apology. Others Could Learn...

A Fashion Police host apologized
to Zendaya for an offensive comment about
her dreadlock hair style at the Oscars.  

Very often, celebrities, politicians, public figures and other people in the news say something stupid, and the Internet and media pile on.

The well-worn trajectory has the people who make the dumb comments digging in, then apologizing.

But you can tell the apologies from most of these people are done just for PR, and the wording of these mea culpas betray a total lack of sincerity.

"I'm sorry if I offend so and so....."

No, you DID offend them. Even if you didn't mean to offend them, you did.

So, it was refreshing to hear the way Fashion Police co-host Giuliana Rancic apologized for making a racist-sounding remark about the actress Zendaya's hair.

First let's get to the offending comment from Rancic. She said about Zendaya's hair style at the Oscars, which was a nice dreadlock do:  "I feel that it smells of patchouli oil, or weed. Yeah, maybe weed."

Fashion Police, is of course, famous for its snarky comments on the way celebrities appear in public, especially their style, or lack thereof (depending upon your opinion.)

Though Fashion Police is a frivolous show and what's said there is certainly not important, Rancic's remarks, pardon the pun, reeked of possible racism.

Zendaya responded to the insult with maturity and class, but also with needed outspokenness:

"To say that an 18 year old young woman with locs must smell of patchouli oil or "weed" is not only a large stereotype but outrageously offensive....... There is already harsh criticism of African American hair in society without the help of ignorant people who chose to judge others based on the curl of their hair. 

My wearing my hair in locs on an Oscar red carpet was to showcase them in a positive light, to remind people of color that our hair is good enough. To me, locs are a symbol of strength and beauty, almost like a lion's mane."

Fashion Police co-host Kelly Osbourne was offended enough by Rancic's comments that she threatened to leave the show.

Clearly, Rancic had to apologize. So she did. Thankfully, she got it right.

In her on air apology, Rancic began:

"I'd really like to address something that is weighing very heavy on my hears. I want to apologize for a comment I made on last night's Fashion Police about Zendaya's hair. Now, as you know, Fashion Police is a show that pokes fun at celebrities in good spirit, but I do understand that something I said last night did cross a line.

I just want everyone to know I didn't intend to hurt anybody. But I've learned it is not my intent that matters; it's the result. And the result is that people are offended, including Zendaya, and that's not OK."

Lets stop here and analyze the statement for a moment. I'm so glad Rancic didn't say, "I'm sorry if I offended anyone. She knows she offended people, so she says straight up that she did, even if that wasn't her intent. Rancic says she crossed a line, and she used the word "learn" to make clear that she had to educate herself on what she did wrong.

Rancic goes on:

"Therefore, I want to say to Zendaya and to anyone else out there that I have hurt that I am so, so, sincerely sorry. This really has been a learning experience for me. I've learned a lot today, and this incident has taught me to be a lot more aware of cliches and stereotypes...how much damage they can do, and that I am responsible, as we all are, to not perpetuate them further. Thank you for listening."

Again, Rancic gets it right. She doesn't say "if I hurt anybody." She acknowledges that she did hurt people, no ifs ands or buts. Again, she talks about how she learned from this, and more importantly what she's learned from this, so she won't do it again.   She also urges others to not make the same mistake she did. Kind of paying it forward.

For the record, Zandaya said she accepts Rancic's apology. And Osbourne said she's glad Rancic apologized and that Zandaya accepted it. Crisis averted.

In the grand scheme of things, a host of a celebrity show saying something rude and crass about another celebrity isn't going to make the world come crashing down.

But more powerful people, the ones with enough mojo to make the world come crashing down, should learn from Rancic.

Rancic might be a star on a celebrity fashion show, but people who should know better, who at least arguably are in positions more powerful than the people on The Fashion Police.

To cite just one example, it makes me think of Rudy Guiliani and his ridiculous "Obama doesn't love America" comment.

Giuliani just couldn't admit he said something over the top. That it was wrong and insulting. It's perfectly legitimate to criticize the president and his decisions, but how does the wild accusation that Obama doesn't "Love America" help.

Instead of at least saying he expressed himself wrong, he did some verbal somersaults, saying he didn't intent to question President Obama's motives or "the content of his heart."

But Rudy, Rudy, Rudy. You didn't acknowledge that you overstepped.

Oh well, he's kind of irrelevant anyway. We can be thankful Rudy isn't a host on Fashion Police.

For the record, here's a video of Rancic's on-air apology: