A Louisiana state representative recently said that he is looking into tubal ligation as a means to decrease the welfare burden on tax-paying residents. This wouldn’t necessarily qualify as genocide, according to the State Representative, because the women who participate in it would be paid $1000.
He said his program would be voluntary. It could involve tubal ligation, encouraging other forms of birth control or, to avoid charges of gender discrimination, vasectomies for men.
It also could include tax incentives for college-educated, higher-income people to have more children, he said.
[...]
LaBruzzo described the tube-tying incentive as a brainstorming exercise that has yet to take form as a bill for the Legislature to consider. He said it already has drawn critics who argue the idea is racist, sexist, unethical and immoral. He said more white people are on welfare than black people, so his proposal is not targeting race.
LaBruzzo said other, mainstream strategies for attacking poverty, such as education reforms and programs informing people about family planning issues, have repeatedly failed to solve the problem. He said he is simply looking for new ways to address it.
I think what’s most interesting to me, aside from the “how-close-can-we-flirt-with-government-sponsored-sterilization-and-get-away-with-it” element is something my old Women’s Studies professor would probably be impressed that I had noticed. That is, why isn’t this aimed primarily at men and vasectomies? (I can read, so I know that it was mentioned, but I can’t tell whether LaBruzzo included that as an afterthought or if the newspaper put it deep, deep in the article to make the proposal seem more outrageous.) If men were the targets of this legislation, most of the charges of -ism would be negated. More importantly, it wouldn’t represent a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
Even when we’re talking about people who have been on welfare for generations, there’s probably a window when they’re interested in doing something else. I could be wrong, but I don’t think very many people actually aspire to go on welfare as soon as they can. I absolutely believe that poor choices send them back to welfare, but I don’t think the woman necessarily lays down with the intent and purpose of getting pregnant and going on welfare. Those are consequences of a poor choice, not evidence of a poor strategy. It’s important to note the difference. I point that out because while tubal ligation would necessarily eliminate the possibility of a woman getting pregnant, one externality of that might be that her window of opportunity would be extended. I’m fairly convinced that it’s not just one or two young women whose dreams and plans were interrupted by an unplanned pregnancy and their lives never recovered. For them, a temporary means of birth control might actually serve them well. But notice, temporary. Tubal ligation ain’t that, and as such, should be permanently off the table. Vasectomies, on the other hand…
The obvious reason that women are targeted in birth-control measures is that they’re the ones who actually get pregnant. But whenever there’s a pregnancy, there was usually a man somewhere in the vicinity. What’s curious to me is that they’re never the target of the discussion (particularly in the case of teen pregnancies, when men older than the mother constitute a statistically significant proportion of the fathers). In the case of Rep. LaBruzzo’s proposal, you’d go from talking about permanent sterilization to something easily reversible; something that could be done just long enough to slip through that window of opportunity, and then undone in time to get that tax credit.
So clearly, the Eagles are the dogs of the NFCE. In watching the Eagles abysmal performance today, the thing that stands out to me is that the offense has no heart. They’ve pretty much tanked in the second half of every game except the one against the Rams. I’m not sure what the problem is, but I’m starting to think that they might not be as good as I thought they were. The Redskins, on the other hand, look good. Campbell, while not throwing any touchdowns, is looking better and better with each game. If they weren’t in the NFCE, I could actually dig the Redskins.
One of the big problems plaguing the Eagles today is the fact that their bum receivers keep on dropping passes. In several drives, their first play was a quick pass that hit the receivers directly in the hands that they didn’t bring in. I understand GM Andy Reid’s philosophy and his resistance to invest in a stud receiver, but at some point, you need to have the type of receiver who can haul the ball in when the play is on the line. It’s all good to spread the ball around when the other offensive schemes are working and Mr. No-Name Receiver can make a relatively easy play, but when the run game’s not working and the defense is playing tight, you need a playmaker. Eagles don’t have that.
Ummmm..they paid all that money for Asante Samuel to do what, exactly? I’d rather have them losing now than in December, but I’ll be dogged if they don’t look like they’re gonna be able to get it done when the weather’s cold. They can’t even do it when it’s nice outside.
Most weekends, I’m somewhere in the city coppin records. I’m usually focused on the $1 crates, because with the exception of something rare, that’s about what I expect to pay. There are a few records I’d drop top dollar for, but not too many. For the most part, I figure if I wait long enough and search hard enough, whatever I see at a record store for 5 dollars, I can wait til I catch it at the flea market for 1. One of the exceptions to that premise was the Roots soundtrack. We had it when I was little, and I don’t know what happened to it, but I haven’t heard it in years. Or shall I say, I hadn’t heard it. I went to one of my usual spots last night and came up on that joint while rifling through the dollar bin. I almost yelped out in the store. I’d estimate that I’ve been lookin for that jawn since at least 2004. I’ve been to record shows, record stores, thrift stores, flea markets, everything. Now being honest, I can’t play it like I been on some Indiana Jones-type quest. If I had just been dying to get it, I probably could’ve found it a lot sooner, but it’s still a long time to be lookin for somethin, even casually. But I got that joint now. While it normally takes me a minimum of a couple weeks to get around to converting stuff from records to mp3, I hooked that joint up last night. Mostly to hear Ole Fiddler.
Looks like OJ’s finally going to jail. Once he got arrested again, he had to know he was going up. It doesn’t matter what they got him for — it could’ve been for stealing a candy bar, he was going up. It’s done now. I ain’t follow no parts of the trial, so I can’t claim any real knowledge, but the charges seem to be a little extra. But whatever. Dude had to know many, many people were out to get him, yet he just kept running around, staying visible. Sometimes you just gotta know when to lay low.
*****
Marcus Landry is a reason to root for Wisconsin basketball this winter.
What I’m far more interested in seeing is the sex education models in countries whose pregnancy and infection rates are lower than ours. Regardless of which model of sex education a person prefers, I think we can all agree that the pregnancy and infection rates are too high. With that in mind, we need to find a model that actually works, not just a model that meshes with our politics - or goes against the politics of the people on the “other” side. Cuz I swear that even if it was statistically provable that abstinence-only sex education worked, some of my friends to my left would argue against it. Likewise, if it was statistically provable that comprehensive sex education led to decreased risk among teenagers, some of my friends to my right would still disapprove. That kind of stubborn ideological loyalty is all well and good, but in situations like this, I would think that the most important thing would be doing whatever would have an impact on the numbers.
Bearing all that in mind, though, I’m not sure that what works in other countries would necessarily work here. I don’t know if it’s because the US is far more heterogeneous than most comparably-developed countries or if it there’s a cultural factor, but whatever we found would probably need some modification. Still, looking at a plan that actually seemed to work would be a good place to start.
Ultimately, what this proves is that people will make their own choices based on their own criteria, regardless of what other people tell ‘em to do. It doesn’t matter what play the coach calls if the players don’t run the play.
Unlike most of the ones so far, this one’s not so much about the lyricism of the verse. In fact, it’s not at all about the lyricism of the verse, because there’s not much if there’s any at all. Rather, this time, it’s about the sheer ‘OOMPH’ of it. Whenever I used to make a running tape, which I did several times a year back in the day, this was usually the last song on each side, so I would finish up with a good sprint. As a song for a workout tape, I don’t know that there’s much better than Approach to Danger, and as a terminal verse for this song, I don’t know that anything could top Eazy-E’s delivery here. It’s like it’s tailor-made for sprinting. Even the last line of the verse is perfect as a cold stop. It worked especially well for me since I did most of my running in the city, and I always tried to time it so that I’d finish my sprint at the end of a block.
Obviously, Dr. Dre’s production is significant, but this song is really about the synergy between the production and the voices, moreso than lots of songs. If you change either, I don’t think it would be anywhere near the dope running song that it was for me.
Final approach to danger, death, destruction around every corner
Another dead body and you wanna keep runnin
But even the rain turns black
All you can do is stay alert and try to stay out of the searchlight
No prison, nobody makes bail
Everybody gotta go but see it ain’t no jail
Think about death, takin your last breath
Heart beatin like a motherfucker like it ain’t no time left
With so many ways to stay up, I gotta get mine
Even though they wanna make a crime, yo
of bein real, a federal letter in the beginnin
Because of the release of “Fuck the Police”
Fuck it I approach the danger
Cause I don’t give a fuck if somebody gotta get fucked up
So you might as well kiss your ass goodbye
Cause in the long run (”we all die”)
Fifty-six points. Looks like a Madden score. The AFCE is definitely wide open. Without New England to Big Brother the whole division, it seems that anybody can come up.
Chiefs got their first win, riding Larry Johnson’s back. I’m not sure if they’d been getting away from him, or if Denver forgot he was there, but he definitely made them pay.
It’s hard not to get caught up in they hype of Cowboys vs. R*s, since I’m living in DC. I almost don’t even hafta watch the game. I can hear people from their balconies and know when somebody made a big play.
Speaking of which, that’s one thing I’ve never understood: the number of Cowboys fans in DC. I’m sure there are some who were grandfathered in, so I guess I can’t hate on that. But aside from that, I don’t get it. It’s not like Washington hasn’t won Super Bowls and whatnot. They’ve had every measure of success. I just don’t understand it. But it certainly makes for some interesting listening.
7:26 And the NFCE is officially open for business. The Redskins look GOOD. I’m actually concerned for next week. Shoot, I’m concerned for tonight!
8:43 It’s early yet, but Desean Jackson could be your Rookie of the Year. I sometimes take a dim view of Andy Reid the GM, but that was definitely a good pick.
10:47 I remember when David Akers was on Vinatieri status. Not no more. Time to get a kicker.
I still say this song should never be re-recorded. Ever. But I’m mindin my own business when I see a Canadian choir givin it a run. But not from T-Dot or somewhere Anglo-Canadian. Naw, son. From Quebec.
If you heard somethin, that was me fallin out my chair.
I might complain about some of the ramifications of our increasingly high levels of media access, but without it, I would never know stuff like this existed. Long live youtube.
Here’s the one for what may be my favorite P-Funk album of all.
You really hafta watch the video to get the full flavor, but in a nutshell, a white deputy, who had stopped a young Black dude because his pants were sagging, chopped the brother in the throat and tried to say he did it because the brother attempted to assault him. The young brother was arrested and taken to jail. Only problem was, his cruiser cam was on, and no such thing happened. The higher-ups in the department saw it and justice eventually ensued.
A couple things:
1. The line of the video, a KILLER if somebody was teaching irony is when the deputy says, “You wanna do somethin’ stupid, you’re gonna end up on TV.”
If I had written somethin like that, it would be dismissed as unbelievable.
2. While I’m glad this one got caught on video - on the officer’s own camera, no less - it just serves as more evidence to me that no matter where we are in life, we can’t really afford to be idiocentric. Just because something didn’t happen doesn’t mean it can’t won’t, or couldn’t have. It just means it didn’t. So in this case, there’s no question that the young man didn’t do anything wrong. His drawls were showing. The deputy said something. Homeboy covered his drawls. The deputy decided to take it further. Without the video, homeboy would probably still be in jail, possibly facing felony charges. For nothing. As much as I used to sag back in the day, I can easily see that being a younger version of myself. When I start to believe that only the things that affect me individually matter, it’s a tough way to go.
See, this is also why I can’t completely get behind them law-and-order type candidates or their supporters. I KNOW there are cops who overstep their bounds. Thankfully, I’ve never had any interaction with them personally, but it would be completely disingenuous of me to act like I don’t think they exist just because I wasn’t the one whose rights were being violated. So when I see somebody talkin about the incarceration rate like it’s completely accurate, and a reflection of fair, just policing I hafta give that person the side-eye. Of course the majority of the people in jail belong in there, but there are enough who don’t that it should really give us pause.
3. It goes without saying that I think the laws against saggin your pants are completely ridiculous. I think certain aspects of that style are ridiculous too, but that’s a matter of fashion and maturity, not something that the law should be brought in to handle. Fashion police is one thing. (I had to tell a boy the other day about tryina sag with them tight jeans on. I’ze like, ‘Young. That ain’t the move. ‘Specially and you got a hole in your drawls.) Five-oh police is another. The net effect of such laws is just what’s on this video: a reason for police to mess with young brothers.
I’m sayin’: somebody don’t like saggin’, fine. Don’t. I used to. I grew out of it. But don’t even TRY to tell me that there should be a law against it. That just means that our local legislators don’t think they have enough to do, which means they need to be workin a regular job while somebody else helps to make the laws.
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