Beware Maxwell Edison or the last sound you'll hear is doink. . . or the sound of your skull fracturing, I dunno...

Now, I don't make animated videos. I don't have the patience or the steady hand necessary to do the artistry and I have more important things to do with my time like working and staring into blank space. However, I do watch them and give props where they're due. That being said I felt like listening to one of my favorite Beatles tunes. A happy, upbeat sounding diddy about a serial killer who bludgeons people to death, it also as a sick bass line. Said song is Maxwell's Sliver Hammer by The Beatles. While surfing about I found this video on youtube and felt the urge to share it. Enjoy.

P.S. This was always one of the odder Beatles songs, even if you disregard the subject matter. It was a McCartney tune and he claimed it's about unwanted surprises rather than a serial killer. Harrison and Lennon always hated it and Ringo, well... he was just being Ringo I guess.

Retail Chronicles: The Chronicling Part 3: It Smelled of Cabbage and Feet... and was Annoying...

Well, I'm still at it trying to clear up my backlog of BS. Today's tale is about a coworker who only lasted a week before they let him go.

Now, anyone who has ever had a job knows that there is at least one dude at the office that no one likes. Be he annoying, a know-it-all, smelly, stupid, lazy, etc. Every once in a while, however, there is someone who manages to roll all of these traits into one and become an aberration so abominable that it defies logic. This type of worker is like an eldritch abomination, try to imagine Cthulu's annoying brother, not as scary but just as madness inducing. Now this is a rare individual, you may work your whole life and never encounter one and you would be wise to hope that's the case. But those of you that are unfortunate enough you have my pity.

In this case we have an individual that in the span of two nights had a crew of 30+ people wishing him ill will. I was almost impressed with his level of dislikabileness but he was so dislikable I couldn't be. This is the kind of individual that assumes you're his best friend after a single meeting even if said meeting ends with you telling him you hope he dies. He was the newbie on our team and rather than accepting advice and guidance he tried to tell us how to do things and was so wrong it would have been funny if it weren't so sad. He actually walked up to random people and quoted Chuck Norris facts. He was a touchy feely person and violated peoples bubbles. He tried to snark but always and invariably failed. He was very weak and insisted on helping do things that required physical strength then whined about how heavy everything was. He hid when we had boring/hard work to do. And worst of all he didn't wear deoderant and ended up smelling like a combo of cabbage, wet dog, and rot.

I could have handled this, believe it or not, but the poor fella thought he was the most awesome person in all of Awesometown, maybe even the mayor. It was so annoying that after the third day of the week the bosses were already planning to an him. Why oh why was he even hired is what I wonder. . .

Retail Chronicles: The Chronicling, Part 2 Obesity, Scooters, and Chips

Alrighty, today's rant doesn't involve co-workers but rather a really, really, really fat motherfather that was accosting me DURING MY BLEEDIN' BREAK!!!

I don't have anything against fat people. I'm somewhat less than in shape myself. That being said, there is a point where someone becomes so fat that they are more amorphous blobs that they are people. These individuals often are wheezy, smell like old bologna sandwiches, have more chins and rolls than an art exhibit consisting of chins sculpted from rolls, and can't walk farther than a few feet without being out of breath and hurting their knees. What's always amazed me about this level of fatness is that it is HARD to stay that fat. First of all, if you're that fat you likely don't work so it's hard to afford enough food to stay that way. Furthermore, you have to be so incredibly sedentary that it's likely impossible to be entertained. Really, if you just ate like a normal person and walked around a bit you'd lose some weight.

But I digress. The other day at work I went on break and was trying to track something down for lunch. As I was wondering about the groceries a very large man riding an electric scooter noticed that I was an employee and muttered something in a lazy wheezy voice to get my attention. Assuming that he just needed help finding something or getting something down from a high shelf because he was to lazy to get out of his scooter I turned around with a poorly faked pleasant smile. Rather than ask for help he started yelling at me because we had recently relocated the chips. Before I could point him in the right direction he scooted off with a wheezy huff. I just shrugged and continued looking for some chow. Then a few minutes later he came back and started yelling at me like it was personally my fault that the chips had moved amd calling me names like "bastard" and "moron" I must have glared something fierce because he then scooted off again. So, back to shopping and then I hear the telltale sound of an electric motor coming my way again. Now the fat bastard was driving around me like a fat hyena circling a potential meal heckling and deriding me because apparently I had moved the chips just to be vindictive... At this point I almost snapped. It took all my willpower not to yell out "You don't need any goddamn chips tubby, look at you." then reach down, unplug his scooter's battery and walk away leaving him stranded unless he could muster the energy to get up. Mustering all of my will I simply replied in the most strained and curt voice I've ever heard, "Sir, I DID NOT move the chips. In fact, I'm on break. However, if you'll be quite for a moment I'll point you to them." Moments later the fat bastard was scooting off to his chips.

Maybe karma kicked in and he got tainted chips that gave him severe food poisoning...

Retail Chronicles: The Chronicling, Part 1: Introduction, The Introducing

Well my non-existent readerbase I'm back so you can collectively stop weeping. I know, life must have been hard but all none of you managed to go on without me... somehow. My ego aside I've been working a summer job to help pay off my college loans in a well known retail chain that shall not be named. Now we all know that I despise the lion's share of my fellow man on a personal level, as such you can only begin to imagine the sheer volume of bile and vitriol that I choke on on a daily basis. That being said, I feel the best way to deal with all my unbridled ill-will is to channel it into some dark humor on the interwebs for your reading displeasure.

That said lets jump into the meaty core of the issue. I have to work with other people, both co-workers and customers, who say, do, behave, and look all kinds of irritating things/ways/whatever/pie. Some of which I find humorous in a condescending kind of way and others nearly cause an aneurysm. Every now and again after a particularly awesome/atrocious nugget pops up I'll chronicle it here. No I've been working there for a few weeks so I have a backlog to clear up before I can give new stuff.

Now, for a starter story we're gonna cover a character I'll refer to as loud bossy girl/terrible mother/please shut up now this individual wound up with a bun in the oven and had to drop out of school. No big deal, I try not to judge but usually fail. Now said woman has a daughter, no babydaddy around to help and an unsupportive family. I tried being sympathetic and nice, really I did, why don't you believe me, go to hell, no really I mean it I tried to be nice. Anyhoo, the more I learned the less I was able to feel any sympathy, i.e. she stated that her babydaddy once threatened to throw the baby out the door because it soiled its diaper. Now, I highly doubt some one can go from dapper gentleman to total douche in that short a time so babydaddy was likely as douchy before he was babydaddy. That said, why would you allow someone made of douchonium to sire your child? Then, upon more involuntary intelligence gathering I discovered that loud bossy girl's grandparents want to take her child. Terrible right? Not really, loud bossy girl is constantly going out getting drunk and doing drugs and hitting on guys almost as douchy as babdaddy was. That actually sounds like responsible and caring grandparents. So, anyway, point is I have trouble feeling sorry for people who cause their own problems. I'm not gonna be sad for someone who burns himself on a hot pan trying to move it without potholders for example.

Anyhow, loud bossy girl got her name by being loud and bossy. I know, witty, right? Anyhoo, loud bossy girl is a temporary hire and she wants her temporariness to become long-terminess and what not. Her way of showing people how good an employee she is is by yelling at everyone and being really bossy to people who she has no right to be bossing around. In a rare moment of compassion I informed her that perhaps being loud and annoying would be an impediment to her future employment. Rather than acknowledging my wisdom or dismissing it she rather tried to justify her logic behind her theory of being annoying and unlikeable in order to ensure continued employment. I'm not going into details but it made me wish I was at least temporarily stricken deaf so I didn't have to hear it...

Anyhoo, more to come, they'll likely be less depressing and more funny.

Philosophy..?

So, the urge to write has struck me and it would seem that some sort of mad neurosurgeon replaced my brain with an intro to philosophy textbook as all that is coming to mind is pseudo intellectual bull that no one gives a damn about. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with philosophy but I hate people preaching it to me and I don't want to do the same in my random insignificant blog that no one reads. I could talk at length about nihilism, pragmatism, morality, communes, utopian/dystopian societies et cetera but nahhhh who wants to hear about that. It doesn't help that I think I'd just come off as one of those morons who likes to spout stuff off, I'm no philosopher, my philosophy is simply that nothings real but what you make so make what you want and do what works and I've already spoken about that in the past. If I tried to develop that idea any further it would be little more than mental masturbation (if you suck at metaphors that would be thinking for the sake of thinking alone with no real gain in the end other than self-satisfaction) which would be a waste of mine and my non-existent readers' time.

Even worse, I could end up sounding like the Wachoski brothers in the second Matrix movie with their long-winded monologues on causality and egregiously overdone navel contemplation. All in all, I think philosophers' works are becoming overused and given too much credit in our society today. Nietzsche, a philosopher himself, tells us this. He says that all of the thinking of academics is wonderful but ultimately useless if you're trying to understand mankind as academics are far removed from mankind. Academics, educated men in ivory towers, are the exception, not the norm. As such anything they think of is not going to be true for society in general. Only by forgetting all of the higher education that we academics have crammed into our skulls and going out in to the world of "common" man can we understand it. All of the lofty talk about ideals, meaning, and purpose that you read in philosophy is missing the critical human elements that are necessary.

Wow this went from me complaining about having nothing to talk about to me giving a lecture on the overemphasis of philosophers ramblings in our thinking. I'm actually angry at myself. My goal when creating this blog was to avoid deep topics and keep posts flippant, irreverent, and fun to write. I, however, have not been in that mindset much since I've started writing on the blog. I often find myself introspective and melancholy rather than sarcastic and snarky when I sit down to write... meh...

Oh Shuttlecock... my childhood was just raped...

Yes, I am so depressed that actual curses can't fully express my inner turmoil. Before we delve into this soul crushing nugget of pure unadulterated sorrow I need to give some background. If anyone who is reading this (and I wonder if that's anyone at all, and don't really care [why am i writing {or rather typing} this then...?] and what do you do when you run out of brackety... things after using "([{}])") then you'll know that I am a massive nerd, I have always and shall remain as such. That being said you can imagine that I lead a childhood filled to the brim with nerdy things, video games, anime, comic books, and.... regular... books... (harumm, that doesn't roll off of the tongue very well). In my youth I could name every final fantasy character and give character profiles off of the top of my head. I could list enough cool animes to fill up a notebook. Hell, if I used every sheet of paper I've ever read from novels and comics I could probably cover the planet. But then I went to college and spent all my time studying, reading for classes, studying, drinking beer, studying, and getting shot down by women... I mean scoring like a madman... ahh bollocks, who am I kidding. I hadn't the time or the money to indulge in my geekieness so aside from horror movie friday with my friends I was fairly removed from all of the aforementioned geek stuff. After college I never dived back in because I was busy working, and paying bills, and trying to get sleep, and all other kinds of unfun but responsible and necessary things.

Background being done lets talk about why I may slit my wrists with a +10 rusty letter opener of crushing despair. I was feeling nostalgic and had some free time so I rented the new Final Fantasy and couldn't help but notice how much it sucked. Well, I took it back and tried to forget ever playing it. I then tried to check out if there is any good anime being made and everything that had good reviews sucked harder than a machine designed to suck things in a room filled with suckable objects. I then decided to watch some good ol' classic stuff. So I went and looked up Hellsing and instead found Hellsing Ultimate... in which Alucard decided that being scary wasn't any fun and became bishonen and then the story decided to get convoluted and messy... and then I stopped watching and was a very sad little man... And then I started wondering, was any of that stuff any good in the first place? Was anime really any good? Was Final Fantasy VII the masterpiece that I vehemently defended it as? Did Evangelion really blow hot sweaty donkey dong? Was gundam really stupid? The answer I came to was possibly. It's either that or anime and videogames all of a sudden inexplicably started being rubbish. With that in mind I went back abd looked at a lot of the things I loved when I was younger and found that it was a combination of the two possibilities. It turns out that some of the older anime's and games that I played and watched when I was younger were still cool but were cool to me for different reasons than they used to be while a lot of new stuff is absolute rubbish.

So in taking stock of all the things I loved as a child the only things that I still seem to enjoy is as follows: Lord of the Rings, anything Stephen King, Thomas Harris novels, BioWare games, some SNES RPG's, Cowboy Bebop, Dragon Ball (not in a man this is cool kinda way but more in a nostalgic, comical "holy crap I can't believe I thought something this goofy was badass!" kinda way), Watchmen, and a few other more obscure things. The impossible has happened, I've lost respect for myself(well not myself now but myself then which is still myself but a different myself than is actually myself) and that does not bode well for the universe. The existence of.... existence hinges solely on the health of my bloated ego... if this keeps up we may end up floating in nothingness (will it be black or white or will there somehow be no perceiveable color or lack thereof) wondering how we're still breathing if air disappeared with the rest of existence.
-------------------------------
As an aside I have some questions that are rattling around in my head about terible anime that everyone seems to love:

- Naruto
- Why in the name of everloving hell does
the "ninja" main character wear an
orange jumpsuit
- Is it just me or are the "ninjas" more
more like retarded versions of jedi
than stealthy assassins
- Why does the writer feel the need for
exposition in the form of flashbacks
and goofy monologues mid fight rather
than before or after or just have the
story organically incorporated rather
than being hamhandedly bludgeoned into
us?

- Bleach
- Why do all anime characters have to be
high/middle school aged? There is no
way I'll ever believe that a high school
student is competent enough to do the
shite anime characters can do
- I read information about the series and
it seems that I would need several pages
simply list all of the characters let
alone describe them. That doesn't make
for a good show just lots of loose ends
that will never be tied or a bunch of
goofy pointless characters, sometimes
less is more
- Why does everyone dress like a moron?
- Why is the main character so angsty?
If I had superpowers I'd be happy as
shit, it'd be hella-awesome. I'd run
around doing awesome shit and yelling
holy shit I rock out loud!!!
- Same thing that made Dragon Ball Z suck
characters have "power levels" that result
in new villains needing to be stronger
than the main character and him eventually
getting stronger than said villain
resulting in characters who could destroy
the universe by breaking wind (you can have
a challenge for a character without "power
levels" by having a more skilled fighter or
simply one who knows how to exploit weaknesses
or manipulate things outside of combat)
- Death Note
- If I had a magic killer notebook then I'd
not waste my time trying to make a utopia
I'd just have some "fun"
- Why in the hell is everyone so obsessed
with the main character? he's lame, evil
and not in an affable or funny way, and
his "ingenious" plots hinge on so many
uncontrollable variables that they
should never work
- Why is everyone so damn gothy?
- Why do they try so hard to make characters
look badass while writing in a notebook?
It clearly doesn't work.

I could keep going but I'm bored now.

This week in stupid...

I haven't vomited in vitriol in a while so lets get to spewin'!!

There's an old proverb that goes something along the lines of "The weakest dog barks the loudest." That's the classy way of saying "Shut the hell up and stop talkin' shit you pussy."

I'm sick and tired of having to watch shit roll out the mouths of tough guys who think they're badasses and just won't stop telling you about it. If you have to announce to everyone that you're tough shit it means that you aren't, or at least that you have a(n) inferiority complex/small penis/love of kittens/sever lack of self-esteem and are simply compensating. It's like a rapist who's trying to convince people he's not a rapist by walking up to them and introducing himself by saying "Hello, I'm not a rapist, and my name is Chester." I don't just get pissed when some would be hardass is trying to bullshit me but when I just hear it. If you're so tough just don't talk about fighting/doing meth/being in a gang/glaring at old ladies/drinking/whatever go do it, and preferably far away from me... in a hole... being filled with concrete... and bears... that are on fire... and have bear aids... or just go and eat gravel or something I don't know...

Warm-hearted Pragmatism.

People often accuse me of being an idealist. Someone who believes that the world is good and people are good and good is good and bad is good and that air tastes like marmalade and... blargh... In reality I'm a cynical pragmatist. I believe that people are bastards and that the world is a sick, sad, miserable sack of hopelessness and sorrow. I fully realize that any efforts I make to better things are ultimately going to be fruitless and pointless and may even end in me being punished for them. I realize that we live in a world in which vice, avarice, rapaciousness, and stinginess lead to success and the alternative leaves us weak and ineffective. I know that the base drives, greed, lust, pride, and hunger are what drive us and without them we would not have progress. I believe there there is no great reward in the afterlife for our sacrifices if we don't we resist all of the "bad" things above. I know that there really is no good and evil or right and wrong, that those are only constructs that we apply to reality to classify things for easier understanding; much like numbers and concepts of up and down, they exist nowhere but in our minds. I know what I find vile and loathsome may seem good and righteous to another. I believe that there really isn't even such a thing as objective truth. I know all this and it makes me sick to my stomach.

How then, can I live my life as anything but an ineffectual nihilist ranting about the uselessness of doing anything? Why am I not some gibbering lunatic spouting incoherent revelations at the masses? Why do I bother to wake up and eat in the morning? How do I decide what is and isn't right for me? How do I see any meaning in anything? Simple, I do what works.

I believe that there is no grand purpose so I validify my existence with the belief that I should leave everything a little better than it was before I was there and that's only because I'm a perfectionist. I don't believe in right and wrong so I decide my course based on what works best for me while hurting as few others as possible. I don't hurt others because I feel I should give the same respect I demand. I get up every morning and keep on going because I find purpose in little things, If something made me smile or laugh at all then it was worth waking up. Following the above mentioned guidelines has me taking actions that would lead some to call me an idealist but it's not idealism that guides me, it's just warm-hearted pragmatism.

The Paradoxical Commandments

The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith


People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

I usually don't share things that other people wrote or said because: 1) It's something that you could easily find on your own were you interested and 2) My ego doesn't permit me of admitting that anyone else can say anything important or profound. However, every once and a while I feel the urge to share something I think is very important. Today is one of those times and that something is the paradoxical commandments. I read this a long time ago and it just sounded so right that I could never forget it.

If you've read any of my previous posts then you know how cynical, jaded, and generally angry I almost always am. I believe that we are just a bunch of hairless apes walking on a ball of shit floating in space. I believe that any meaning we try to ascribe to our existence is ultimately just us projecting our desires to feel special. I believe that, in the end, it won't matter if you lived your life in slimy decadence or pious restraint. However, I also believe that the world is filled with enough suffering and I refuse to add to it, furthermore, I believe that if it is within my power to improve the lives of anyone that I should do it. Not because I expect to be rewarded in this life or in some magical afterlife but just because it is the right thing to do.

Just because the world sucks it doesn't mean we have to be bastards. Kindness doesn't have to be rewarded, in fact it shouldn't be, it cheapens it. In closing, I think I quote the movie Se7en: "Ernest Hemingway once wrote that the Earth is a fine place and is worth fighting for. I agree with the second part."

I couldn't think of anything witty so I'll title this "Angry Rant!!"

Well, I'm home sick today, my evil little students have decided to bombard me with their germs and I now have an upper respiratory infection for the ages. Apparently I decided that sitting around coughing up rainbow colored phlegm and groaning wasn't making me miserable enough so I decided to dive into the hot mess that is the national news.

Don't get me wrong, I read the news every day. How else do you think I stay so angry all of the time? But I usually don't have time to do any digging of my own for the stories or try to get a feel as to the opinion of John Q. Dumbass out there. Well today I have time in spades so I decided to surf around and just see where the waves took me (see what I did there with the metaphor? It took almost all my willpower not to stick my head in the oven after writing it...). I knew how it would end, it always goes the same way when I start surfing. I check out some news stories, I read what some bloggers are saying about it. Then I check out things they're referencing to see if it's true or if they're idiots manipulating quotes to show what they want. Eventually I come across something so mind-numbingly thick that I have to walk away from the computer for a few seconds so I can walk around and make sure I haven't been catapaulted into a parallel dimension where logic doesn't exist. Today that something was Wallbuilders....

Now, before I return to my rant let me give some backstory. Once upon a time in the bible belt I was teaching social studies in a ultra conservative school. As anyone who knows me may imagine this was like walking on razorblades, and then salt, and then getting kicked in the nuts by a... nut kicking machine designed to do that flick the toe up thing just perfect so that it hurts more and you get sick to the stomach. However, I tried to make the best of it, acting as a centrist voice of reason in a far right filled area. I took no strong stances on any political beliefs(I feel that a teacher never should unless it is fact, i.e. evolution should be taught in science class as it is considered scientific fact, or that global warming DOES exist[but may be less under our control]). However, during the McCain Obama election I thought I'd go out of the standard curriculum between two units and teach the students about the election process and the candidates, nothing crazy there lots of social studies teachers do it. However, it turned out to be all kinds of crazy. I had set up a mock debate where children drew from a hat either McCain or Obama and regardless of your won leanings you were to support that candidate. Half of my students who drew the Obama card seemed okay if discouraged but the next day I began recieving a few complaints. I even had one child's parent demand that her child be switched to the McCain debate team as she didn't want her child reading about Obama. Furthermore, her letter went on to criticize me for teaching about him at all and to paraphrase I was teaching it because I was either dumb or evil.She attatched in her message a printoff from Wallbuilders that described Obama's platform in a way that made him sound, to me, like he was going to be performing back ally abortions on minors while recording gay porn to be shown in classrooms all the while smoking a blunt rolled from the original constitution and stomping on a bible. No wonder she was scared. At the time I dismissed wallbuilders as I was busy doing important things in my spare time like napping and watching paint dry.

Now segue back to present day and I'm on Wallbuilders with the sneaking suspicion that I've heard it before. I've already read an article that claims that Jeffreson wouldn't have wanted to keep prayer out of public schools and was halfway through an article about how terrible historical revisionism is (unless it's being revised they way you like) when I realized that this is the same site I from the aforementioned story. I took a look at the site and it passed all my credible site tests I did some google searches about it and realized that it is a legitimate site with regular viewers. Then I took a -20 hit on my Faith in Humanity score which was already dangerously low... I understnad being religious, I understand wanting to practice your religion, I still thin it's stupid but I realize why you do it. That's not what got me, it's that the site, which seems to be popular with at least a large niche, is trying to rewrite history and state that the first amendment was only intended to protect Christianity and maybe a handful of other religions. That it's okay to force Christianity on people so long as the government doesn't come out and say that it is an actual official religion... and to reiterate on the site I was reading articles about how revisionism is a BAD thing.

As an aside this further reinforced my opinion that members of the religious right are so arrogant in their beliefs that they can say without choking on their own hypocrisy that you don't have to right to preach about your beliefs in public while deriding you for being unchristian. This is because, so far as I can tell, they are so sure that they are RIGHT that they don't see it as preaching their beliefs but as enlightening you to undeniable facts...

... Meh... I need a cough drop, I'm done here... damn kinds and their germs...

Race issues still exist.... Or did we forget about that...

So unless you specifically try not to know about what happens in the world and the only people you speak with are fratboys and gerbils I'd have to assume that you've heard of the bollocks going on with Harry Reid. He said that obama stood a chance in the election because he was "light skinned" and had no "negro dialect". And people are acting like he just ran down a main thoroughfare in Harlem screaming "I HATE BLACK PEOPLE AND EAT ABORTED FETUSES FOR DINNER!". Yes what he said was a little racially offensive and lacking in tact but it was true. The truth hurts ya know but that doesn't make it less relevant. Americans are still quite racist, the racism isn't as blatant as it once was but it's still there behind closed doors and in circles of all white friends. I'm confronted with the sickening reality whenever I decide to go out and do something her in podunkville. I'll hear, see, and often be spoken on the topic of someone's hatred for some random minority. Despite my greatest efforts to get the people to change their opinions they usually just write me off as some kinda weirdo that doesn't hate people that look like he does and then shun me. The way I look at it at least they won't talk to me then.

Ranting aside let me get back to the topic at hand. What Reid said was true. Had Obama's skin been darker or if his voice sounded more "black" (more bassy, used colloquialisms, or didn't fully pronounce each word carefully) he wouldn't have been elected(the irony of this being that G Dubbs could butcher the english language on a regular basis an no one seemed to give a damn becuase he was White and some people thought that being an idiot was "part of his charm"... *facepalm*). Even other African Americans seem to prefer light skinned blacks it's just how it works, it could be a carryover from the slave culture in which some multi-racial children were "passable" as tanned whites because they were light enough, it may just be a response to living in a system where your black skin makes you face hatred and disgust. As for whites it's a simple matter of "OMFG you don't look like I do!!!!" which is equally disturbing. The fact of the matter here is that despite the language he used Reid was correct. He said it at all only because it was a private conversation and it doesn't make him a racist, just a realist. Maybe someday that won't be an issue now but it's fairly certain that if Obama was "blacker" he wouldn't have been a viable candidate.

Oh, and people trying to make a big deal about Reid using the word "Negro" need to shut up. There is no "good word" to use when making a statement like what Reid said. Saying negro didn't have any covert meaning. It's just another word for black. Hell I have a friend that regularly says "Negro please!"