(Th)ink and Grin, or shudder

I can't aptly describe this week's (Th)ink cartoon by Keith Knight (you know, the guy who isn't the Boondocks guy). You'll need to go see it yourself.

Get counted now or you WILL whine later

Just a reminder, hat tip to Jack at JJP, that the 2010 census is still in progress, inquisitive humans with black bags roaming the streets.

Steve Jost's own words from Huffington Post:

All census workers have taken an oath for life to protect the confidentiality of the data they collect. In addition, by law the Census Bureau cannot share your answers with anyone, not housing authorities, not tax authorities, not law enforcement. Not even the President of the United States can see your answers.

Census workers will be easily identifiable: Each will have an official government badge (identifiable by the seal of the Census Bureau) and a black canvas census bags. [sic]

If you have any doubt about whether the person at the door is a census taker, here is a list of what 2010 census workers will NOT ask you for:

1) Your social security number

2) Any personal financial information

3) To come inside your home

...

All those with a great "Next Blog" of the Week: take one step forward

Not so fast, Cooper...

Well, all right, Mr. Blogspot or Ms. Blogger or whoever is actually the person pulling the strings while we dance out here in the open blogosphere. I think there may be a pattern to this Next Blog thing after all. Since I posted about the uproar in a certain Southwestern state just east of California which shall not be named, my Next Blog link seems to have altered considerably. I think it's more to the political right but I can't prove it. In any case, after an inordinate number of attempts (in two browsers) I'm calling it a draw. Nothing I'd foist upon y'all. We'll try again next weekend.

Quote of the Week (May 2-8, 2010)

Human beings seem to be a poor invention. If they are the noblest works of God where is the ignoblest?
   --Mark Twain (Notebook, 1896)

Take off your rainbow shades

It's too early-- or too late-- to react calmly and reasonably to the train wreck generated by Arizona's passage of a draconian immigration law, signed into law on April 24 by Gov. Jan Brewer. Cooler heads do not yet prevail.

I said early on:

If Arizona starts checking ID of people with plaid shirts to see if they're Canadian, I'll take back all my remarks.

That was late April. Now that it's early May, it appears that I need not worry about retracting the above. The tops of people's heads did indeed explode, and stayed that way. Arizonan public officials (and their pundit supporters across the realm) spent the intervening days trying and failing to explain how the new law could be enforced without rampant racial profiling, especially since there is no expressed official interest in illegal immigrants from anywhere but Mexico and points south.

As of April 30, a hastily-signed follow-on bill attempted to quell the uproar by being, ah, just a bit more specific. It clarifies that people can't be interrogated strictly on the basis of race or ethnicity alone, but (from the linked story) "civil complaints, such as an unmowed lawn, could trigger questioning about immigration status." Well, as long as there's a sound reason to check someone's papers, right?

I had one moment of near-sympathy for the Grand Canyon State when talking with an expatriate Arizonan a few days ago. The claim, which I have no reason to doubt, is that border crime and violence has gone so far beyond merely crossing to find work that a radical solution is necessary. Well, you've got me there. Peaceful residents on either side of the border, being overrun by marauding drug dealers? Migrant workers' minor pilfering of water or food escalating to grand larceny? No argument, some kind of hammer needs to come down. I just can't see how the new law, however amended, changes either of these.

A gentle reminder for our gentle readers of what month it is

For a host of reasons I forgot to post this yesterday, but there's still plenty of May 2010 left. You may recall Kris Broughton's recent post over at Brown Man Thinking Hard. It was written in response to neo-Confederate shenanigans (too many to list here) from Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, and was titled "America Has a Black President Month" Comes Every 30 Days. It said, in part:

This is "America Has A Black President" month.

The next celebration will begin May 1st. The one after that will be June 1st. The one after that...

Keep smiling.

The Death of Proofreading: Kamal or Kamala?

Major news site typos are always amusing, unless you're the person whose name was misspelled. I assume the SFGate webmaster staff will fix the headline in the image below when somebody wakes up (it's early Sunday morning in this time zone). And I further assume they will apologize to Ms. Harris, the Chronicle regrets the error, etc. as there is NO WAY this is anything but a typo, certainly not an inebriated weekend staff trying to slip one by.

Actually, I'd expect the publisher & editor to call and apologize for this one, as they have just "typoed" their own endorsed candidate for Attorney General. One hopes this isn't an omen of some kind for the rest of the election cycle...

_____

EDIT: They fixed it. The headline now reads:

EDITORIAL

A focused vision for attorney general