Blacks and Hispanics Are Not Happy With How Media Portray Their Communities #Ferguson

Paper wasps are lucky.  They have no media defining them in their world.  They can be what they are.

Excerpt AP report at Yahoo.com Blacks, Hispanics have doubts about media accuracy

A new study shows a large majority of African-American and Hispanic news consumers don't fully trust the media to portray their communities accurately, a statistic that could be troubling for the news industry as the minority population of the United States grows.
Three-fourths of African-American news consumers and two-thirds of Hispanics have doubts about what mainstream media report about their communities, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Media Insight Project. And while most say it's become easier to get news generally in the last five years, few feel the same way about news regarding their own community, the survey said.

It does seems like only the crime and the criminals are ever featured in newspapers and on TV news.  Luckily for Hispanics they have Spanish language stations that understand them more, but that doesn't help how they're portrayed to the average non-Hispanic family watching the tube at night.

Funny how mainstream Hollywood forgot about all the money that the Cosby Show, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Sister Sister made them with the general mostly white audience (I think.  I know my kids were raised on those shows, not for diversity sake, but because they were fun, and kid safe.)  As they grew up they chose their own diverse shows.  Something happened with me.  Oh, yeah, the Internet.

I think all people can be upset.  Entertainment tends to put people in good and bad slots, though I notice whites get to be more nuanced and complicated like all people are, in real life.

The boxes that Hollywood put us in may be one of the main factors in it's losing share of our after hours preoccupation.

The writers, financiers, and producers should pay attention.

Read rest of AP report by clicking on link above. All of this has been commentary except title in link and indented portion in post.

Picture at top clipped using Windows Snipping Tool and used via Creative Commons Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user Ian Sane who has no connection to this blog or blogger.

George Zimmerman Threatens Another Person in Florida

The News Media should talk to Z'man's cousin pictured here (not the guy on the swing) concerning the out of control former phony neighborhood watch captain. (Attribution for picture at bottom.)

George Zimmerman has another run-in with the law

The news site seemed to offer an embed on this, but using their code we got just a less accurate link instead. The video is available at the linked WSVN page.

 More News:  The Z'man, feeling his oats since his abysmal "Not Guilty" verdict actually asked the other driver if he knew who he was just before threatening to kill him.  So apparently he's watching FOX News and identifying with the Wassilla Hillbillies.

 The whole story (how he also just happened to show up the next day at a place the other driver was, and pictures of Z'man 'splaining things to the cops at The Daily Mail.

'I will f**king kill you. Do you know who I am?' George Zimmerman is accused of threatening to shoot driver in road rage incident

Certainly after the first incident would have been a great time to drug test Trayvon's killer, but I guess he wasn't around when the cops talked to the other driver.  The second time Z'man was able to show he wasn't stalking so, unfortunately that probably blocked the police from testing him.

I like that source since it shows a picture of the other driver showing that Z'man has become an equal opportunity threat.

And don't forget he likes to molest young women too. 

Congrats, Florida, you have your own  Lake Mary Hillbilly at large in your streets.

This adds proof that Z'man was not an endangered lone "watchman" one night in February years ago, but a typical neighborhood bully who should not have firearms available to him.

Picture above used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user DSC_6961pp who has no connection to this blog or blogger.

Is the Internet Headed for a Massive Slowdown or Shutdown?

After the Great Internet Slowdown Life Becomes a drudge, even with alcohol.

The great new Internet buzz is that the our providers are planning to slowdown everyone's connection unless we pay more for service.

That sounds much like a conspiracy theory for many reasons.

What they may be offering is a speed-up for higher paying customers.  That's nothing new.  Many Internet suppliers offer it or more megabytes of data at higher megabit rate for higher priced plans.  It's one of the reasons our house stays away from cable internet offerings that charge on varying scales the result may not be prices we want to pay, but will be obligated to.  It's like giving a credit card to someone you can't trust and then dealing with the results.  Very wealthy people might do that, but working class folks like my family can't afford to.

Personally I am using DSL (Verizon)  I don't expect a slow down at  all. I've had some bad ones with Verizon over the last year.  But they fixed the problems by various means.

In February the DSL completely shut off. We called that night, but nothing could be done until the next day.  Luckily there was a lot of Olympics stored on the television's DVD.  The repair man worked on the lines specifically for our house for a few hours and we were back to normal which wasn't very good.

A couple of months later trucks pulled up (not specifically labled Verizon) and reran some wires along the telephone, etc lines for the whole neighborhood. I didn't realize it until the Internet started recovering from the funk it was in for months that it was likely a more extensive fix for the whole area's phone and DSL lines.  (They all look alike to me).

Still occasionally my contact with the Internet slogged till it seemed like the Devil had a choke hold.  I complained again via Twitter and mentioned Verizon as my provider.

Verizon tweeted back to explain to them what was happening.  I hadn't a clue so ignored it, but a couple of weeks later in another slog a message popped up telling me my computer resources were overused and that may be why my Internet was slow.  It was specifically a message from Verizon.

And Big Brother was right.  Okay creepy but what can you do when someone publicly complains and then ignores your offer of help?  Opening Task Manager I saw I was using a lot of CPU, and I mean a lot, like 60-90% when I get the messages from Verizon.  Closing programs or restarting the computer has always fixed the problem since.  I like restarting and opening what I want fresh  I'm not sure all programs let go of their space when just closed. 

Another way I've able to speed up the Internet a bit is by linking to the modem via cord instead of WIFI.  I know not all can do it, but if you can it is a bit faster.

I'm going to wait and see what happens at the least.  It would make more sense to add speed to those who pay more than to subtract speed from the rest of us.

Many people grab attention wailing about gloom and doom for our Internet connections. Even Amy Goodman is on the bandwagon as I see from Twitter.  I stopped listening to her when she helped some wacko push conspiracy theories against President Obama.

I use Speakeasy speed test as I have for years to check my line speed.

As liberals we need to keep grounded in reality and not run after crazy prognostications or link any and all problems to "them" whether the government, fat cats, politicians, or other unnamed entities because we need to be able to convince people of a whole lot more than Internet speed warnings. We all know the story about crying wolf. Apparently though many groups and individuals still think its a viable option and woe to those who ignore them. That's why all of us on the West Coast are dead from Fukushima radiation. We ignored the crazies that worked off a You Tube video of guy with a Geiger counter on a Cali beach getting pings (they always produce pings) when folks from Russia and New York told us we're all gonna die!

Like I did with Amy Goodman, people learn not to trust you if you cry gloom and doom a lot.

Check your line speed (Speakeasy). Check your resources (Task Manager).  Restart your computer if things are slowing down.  You'll be a lot happier in the end if you can fix a slowdown rather than complain about it. (I think).  If you are having real problems, complain to your provider and see what they can do to help.  We have real problems in this nation as was exposed by the police murder of Michael Brown in Missouri.  Playing around with conspiracies is just a waste of time.

A lot of bad things happen out there.  We need to keep focused on the real bad things and ignore crazy stuff.  It's going to be a tough fight as it is.

If we're all pushed to a slow line except for those who pay more, then it will be time to complain and make a fuss.  I suspect another tier of speed will open for high payers.  It might have been part of the reason for the rewiring of the lines. In fact if Netflix, etc. get a special path that might free up more space for the rest of us in the slower lanes.

And BTW its about slowing down Internet at the worst (which I don't believe), not blocking info from you no matter what posturing Send Money! bloggers want you to believe.  

It's a greedy, duplicitous Internet/Pundit world out there, Grasshopper.  Don't believe everything you hear/read.  BTW, many of the most outraged and vocal were the most outraged and vocal over Ferguson last month.  It's beginning to look like this group just latches onto the biggest outrage to collect donations (I do not believe everyone mad about Mike's Brown murder was doing it for donations.  Most do not have blogs and others, like me have no, way for you to donate and we still care about what happens in St Louis County and whether they will be unshackled from their racist police complex that targets minorities (as easily discernible lower income citizens) for prosecution of many minor crimes to pay or their big salaries while keeping "taxes" low.

Many people receive more in donations if they spread the crazy.  Just let them prove this one before we repeat it, Okay?

Picture above clipped using Windows Snipping Tool and used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to flickr user Mike Licht of notionscapital.com at Flickr.com who appears to have adapted it from a painting by Jean Beraud.  Full Licht pic here.

Study: People Take Longer Time to Shoot at Blacks Than Other Adversaries But Only Because They Feel Greater Need to Kill

Cemeteries fill with victims perceived to have been threats, but some researchers are looking at  discrimination and seeing mercy that's not likely to have been in the heart of the shooter. Attribution for clip of Melbourne cemetery below.

The fact that people with guns take a split second longer  to shoot a black person than perceived White or Hispanic fellows seemed to be shown yesterday morning by a few white Twitter users,at least, as a case of "what are they complaining about then?".

But if you read the study through and think about it, the delay is not necessarily out of a lack or lesser of feeling of threat from a black opponent, but from an increased impression of danger, forcing the person with a gun to concentrate longer in an attempt to make a better shot, and possibly plan a few steps ahead.

Even though the author thinks people favor blacks with lack of shooting herself, I disagree

Author (link to report):

James’ study is a follow-up to one in which she found active police officers, military personnel and the general public took longer to shoot black suspects than white or Hispanic suspects. Participants were also more likely to shoot unarmed white suspects than black or Hispanic ones and more likely to fail to fire at armed black suspects.
“In other words,” wrote James and her co-authors, “there was significant bias favoring blacks where decisions to shoot were concerned.”
When confronted by an armed white person, participants took an average of 1.37 seconds to fire back. Confronted by an armed black person, they took 1.61 seconds to fire and were less likely to fire in error. The 24-millisecond difference may seem small, but it’s enough to be fatal in a shooting. (Emphasis mine).

 Yet the author admits:

The recent study analyzed data from electroencephalograph sensors that measured participants’ alpha brain waves, which are suppressed in situations that appear threatening.
The participants, 85 percent of whom were white, “demonstrated significantly greater threat responses against black suspects than white or Hispanic suspects,” wrote James and her co-authors, University of Missouri-St. Louis criminologist David Klinger and WSU Spokane’s Bryan Vila. This, they said, suggests the participants “held subconscious biases associating blacks and threats,” which is consistent with previous psychological research on racial stereotypes.

Thank you mam for that bit of truth which you then try to bury it.

Let me explain:

George Zimmerman didn't just start shooting randomly to scare Trayvon.  I'm pretty certain he was the kind of loser who might spray an area with bullets before bringing down a threatening deer. But that one time he shot straight to the heart, killing the teen deliberately because the fact that the young man was strong and not a coward and black told Zimmerman that his opponent was a guy out of the fantasies of a video game or rap lyrics who must die or kill, even as the teen shouted no in a gesture of ending the fight when he saw the gun (from 911 tapes just before the shot rings out).

Yeah, I'm saying it.  Despite being offered a truce the pathetic pretend neighborhood watch guy satisfied his self defense gun battle dream.

That heightened perceived threat is what made Darren Wilson pump (now acknowledged) 10 bullets into Mike Brown even as the teen ran away, turned, offered surrender, and finally was falling to the ground.

I hadn't been online to thoroughly read the report Tuesday afternoon since first seeing it tweeted about in the morning.

I wanted to make sure I understood what was being "discovered" and how, not just the idea that people with guns were actually favoring blacks in their sites with pacifism over others as some Tweeters seemed to hint this morning.

I've reread it 4 or 5 times, and the greater time used before pulling a trigger (not a lot either) actually seems to be a response to a greater perceived threat and a feeling of needing to make a shot that will kill or at least completely disable a black man if they are going to pull the trigger. And if a shot isn't taken it could mean that the person with the gun didn't want to draw attention from the noise fearing a real gun battle (whether or not the target actually was seen with a gun already drawn).

So this is nothing that mitigates the idea of prejudice, but expands it.  It's the perceived return threat what keeps a shooter from pulling the trigger as fast or at all.  But that can be all the more deadly once the firearm is engaged if the shooter feels more of a need to shoot to kill an opponent. I think reports from Stand Your Ground states would bare this out.

 Picture above of a portion of a Melbourne, AU cemetery was clipped using Windows Snipping Tool and used via Creative Commons Attribution license (CC by 2.0) thanks to flickr user Jo who has no connection to this blog or blogger.