HOUSEKEEPING'S PROFILE

Reviews. Sir Winston Churchill once said, "Oy, get that bloody slag out of here or the missus'll 'ave me bollocks!" Scholars throughout the ages have debated the meaning of this venerable man's venerable quote, but I think it's obvious: he was making a profound statement about the quality of reviews and the need of people to police those reviews, and then, in turn, for people to police those review reviews.

We should only be constrained by our wildest dreams. That's what I felt when reading Liberty's revised review review of Painted Heart. In my wildest dream I take a bite of a framed picture of my mother and then all my teeth fall out.

Content: 5/5

Give love, and you shall receive love in return, and then the angels will sing upon the highest mountain.
~Queen Latifah

Liberty's tone comes with the sharp crack of the whip. But, from that whip--the sting of love. Her burning desire to improve the community comes with every snarky jab. But, will the original reviewer feel love, or will he feel pain, much like what one feels when being whipped with an actual whip?

Tone/Politeness: 3/5

I can count to five, can I not? Am I not human? Am I not alive? If you're a speak n' spell, the answer is a resounding no, I'm afraid. But a speak n' spell can't give a numerical review, and certainly not one as judicious as Liberty's.

Validity of Rating System: 5/5

Hey, welcome to Fraggle Rock, I'm a fraggle!
~Kermit the Frog

Sorry, I'm still reading this as Magilla Gorilla; I really can't get that classic ape's classic japes out of my brain.

Audio: 2/5

This might be the dumbest thing I've ever done.
~Stephen Hawking while coming up with some science garbage

A perfect score is a rarity. A true gem. That's why I haven't given one today. But, that's not to say that Liberty's review review was bad. No. It was transcendent. I can only imagine that the fault lies with me, somehow, for I am just man, and man is imperfect.
Overall: 3.5/5

I live in Austin, which is basically Portland in Texas, but, yeah, I haven't seen that here to a significant degree. Maybe that kind of thing gets tempered out by Texasness, but whatever.

And, I do agree that the idea of privilege as being tied to ethnicity needs to be dialed back a bit and attributed more to economic circumstances. But, we're not removed far enough from the Civil Rights Movement to say that privilege straight-up doesn't exist.

My brother told me an interesting anecdote. He was in South Carolina (or another southern state--not sure which) and was up early because the plane fucked up his internal clock. At the hotel breakfast bar, which was attended by a young black man, they had a strict policy about not serving breakfast until 6:00 AM. While my brother was waiting, an older white guy who was in town for a NASCAR event went to get some cereal. The attendant stopped him and said that the breakfast bar wasn't open for another ten minutes. After complaining, the man had to sit next to my brother and wait for a few tense minutes.

My brother's observation about this was that, at some point in that guy's lifetime, he would have been able to backhand the attendant, force him to pour his cereal, and no one would have done anything to stop him. Having that power removed from you overnight must have been a pretty big shell shock, and I don't think you would ever forget that.

That internalized racism can still come out in the right circumstances, like if you're hiring people and want to filter out "undesirables." I think white privilege exists in that regard. It's not something people should be shamed over from birth, and it doesn't mean that a reversal needs to occur and white people need to bend over backwards all the time, but it doesn't mean that there's no substance to it.

Go Balbo!

Alright, gentlemen, the chalk circle has been drawn. The game: knives.

author=Solitayre
Guys I already said once that this thread isn't for picking fights with harmonic.

Oh.

Seriously, though, Harmonic isn't bringing up his wife because he's secretly a racist. He's bringing her up because he's confusing us with his perception of liberals, who are hyper-tolerant bogeymen. I was trying to poke fun at that but instead made him feel like I was calling him a racist; sorry about that.

Yeah, the Republican coalition is pretty broad, really:
-Religious-minded social conservatives
-Libertarians
-Fiscal conservatives
-Super pro-military types
-Nationalists
-Fringe racists
-Angry loners

What a lot of it comes down to is whether you're more afraid of being controlled by government or corporations; just about everyone in America just wants freedom, but what that means is different to different people.

Also, I've been really interested to hear about Asian wives, but nobody around here ever talks about their Asian wives. Does anyone here have an Asian wife?