Racism and Civility

Having listened to a lot of pundits and read a bit about all this Joe Wilson kerfuffle, I thought I'd weigh in.



Straight Talk From QueerJoe
Do I think Joe Wilson broke the unwritten rules of civility in our legislative branch during the president's speech?

I do, and while I'm not usually a stickler for rules (written or unwritten), I am a big stickler for the making sure the intent of rules is carried out.

The U.S. president is head of our armed forces, head of the executive branch of our government and head of state for all international interactions. As such, demeaning him publicly like Joe Wilson did, could have far-reaching consequences that I'm sure Mr. Wilson didn't think through when he decided to question the president's integrity in front of a very large audience. Even more stupid on Mr. Wilson's account was he was wrong about him lying. President Obama said their was a provision in the bill excluding illegal aliens, which there is. There was really no lie about it. Fortunately, Mr. Wilson ended up looking quite stupid, except to some of the fanatic right-wingers who now hail him as a hero, and the Turette-like utterance of Joe Wilson seems to have no ill effects on the reputation of the president.

Do I think this country's Republican defiance of this president is racist?

I think racism plays a role in the obstinate nature of the Republicans even if they don't consciously realize it. But I also think racism is an often unnoticed, underlying reason for a lot of things that happen in this country. I also don't think it's the main reason. I think largely, the Republicans think by digging in their heels, they can thwart the change that Obama was elected in to office to make, and by so doing, prevent him from being re-elected.

I personally think this is a stupid strategy which will backfire on them come the next presidential election.

Do I think Obama is racist.

I hope I don't lose any of my sponsors...oh wait...nevermind, I don't have any, but I do think that everyone is a racist in some way, including the president. Race is an aspect of a person or group of people, and there are certain ideas that or characteristics that I think most everyone has about various races. However, if you were to ask me if Obama makes decisions based on these ideas of race, I would say he doesn't...or at least I've never seen any evidence of it.

Does writing this mean that Crystal Palace and Skacel will now NEVER sponsor me?

Current Knitting
I've made progress on all three currently active WsIP. And you'll note, that for all three projects, I'm either knitting with Skacel needles or Crystal Palace yarns.



Oops...wait a minute...the Expedition Pullover is using neither favored products...sorry about that.

Believe it or not, I'm still laboring away on the 1x1 ribbing on the first Supreme Possum/Merino sock (even though I already started the second one).

On the Mini Mochi scarf, I have added another 10 inches.

And on the Expedition Pullover, I've finished up to about half the armhole gussets.

I like having all three projects going at once so I can switch between them whenever I feel like it.

Readers' Comments/Questions
Regarding the new roving from Winter's Past Farms, minneapolismama writes, "That roving is gorgeous! What are you going to do with it? I'm already looking forward to seeing pictures of it in the next stages."

Yes, her dyeing is really quite deep and delightful. I'm thinking about making thicker singles with the red roving and finer singles with the Pin Oak roving and plying them together to see how I like them combined. From that, I'm thinking I'll make a sweater for me or Thaddeus.

We'll see how my plans turn out!