LWC's Other Ramblings

Slavery was once a right. Now-outdated notions of privacy and property allowed marital rape as a right. But the costs of those rights were the violation of others rights, and we reached a point as a society (through much debate, struggle, blood, sweat, tears, and more) where we decided that protecting rights like slavery and marital rape was no longer worth the damage they inflicted. Alcohol was a right, then it wasn’t, and then it was again because prohibiting drinking caused more trouble than we were able to tolerate. However, when the right returned it did not go unchecked. This is how we negotiate rights in a democracy.

In the original Trek, Khan, with his brown skin, was an Übermensch, intellectually and physically perfect, possessed of such charisma and drive that despite his efforts to gain control of the Enterprise, Captain Kirk (and many of the other officers) felt admiration for him.

And that’s why the role has been taken away from actors of colour and given to a white man. Racebending.com has always pointed out that villains are generally played by people with darker skin, and that’s true … unless the villain is one with intelligence, depth, complexity. One who garners sympathy from the audience, or if not sympathy, then — as from Kirk — grudging admiration. What this new Trek movie tells us, what JJ Abrams is telling us, is that no brown-skinned man can accomplish all that. That only by having Khan played by a white actor can the audience engage with and feel for him, believe that he’s smart and capable and a match for our Enterprise crew.

Jobs, jobs, jobs! They’re everywhere. The problem with all this job-creation is the new jobs are all worse than our previous jobs, which, to be honest weren’t all that rad in the first place. Some jobs, they don’t even pay money, which is still a thing you need some of to live. My mother spent the recession in multiple jobs, the most recent of which paid federal minimum wage. $7.25, baby! This is the reason why, when I hear well-paid pundits say that no one except high school kids work for minimum wage, I want to fly to their home, poop on their doorstep, and set it on fire.

More than 600 firefighters, teachers, environmentalists, and church leaders carried signs reading “ALEC is Not OK” and chanting “backroom deals are ALEC’s game/sweetheart deals for corporate gain,” while a giant inflatable pig wearing a banner reading “Hi, my name is ALEC” floated overhead. Two big rigs adorned with Teamsters logos circled the convention center, honking their horns and blowing air brakes. Harold A. Schaitberger, President of the International Association of Fire Fighters, told the crowd that ALEC’s “sole purpose is to develop the most anti-worker, anti-employee, anti-union, anti-middle class, pro-business, pro corporation policies, legislation and agenda possible.

It was in 2006 when I really starting identifying myself as a Democrat,” he said. “I don’t think having Head Start or welfare is antithetical with what America is about. When I see people trying to gain equal respect, and I see other people trying to stop it, that bothers me.” Poag worked to help President Obama get elected. He also worked last year with the Nancy Fischman campaign. The Democrat lost to incumbent state Rep. Matthew Hill, R-Jonesborough, who won a fifth term in the 7th House District. However, she landed a surprising 34.2 percent of the vote.

There’s nobody on the board who is not approved by the Haslam family because [the Haslams] own 59 percent of the stock,” said George Dent, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University. “For a lot of people, and perhaps myself included, that would mean that [Martin] could not possibly be considered independent.” But forensic account Lewis Baum, whose work for clients includes fraud detection, said Haslam “appears to be trying to be very transparent.” Ties between Martin and the Haslams aren’t necessarily a red flag, said Baum, at SS&G Parkland in Solon. In 1999, when Martin was chief executive of Saks Inc., the company hired Jimmy Haslam’s brother, Bill, to start up online retail operations for Saks in New York. Bill Haslam got into politics two years later, became mayor of Knoxville in 2003 and in 2010 was elected governor of Tennessee. He’s a member of the board of the University of Memphis, which last month appointed Martin as its interim president. Martin, chairman of his private equity firm, RBM Venture Co., could not be reached Friday. Nashville attorney Aubrey Harwell said Martin is simply the liaison between the Weingarten report to come and Pilot’s board. “It makes absolutely no difference whether or not the person receiving the report has or doesn’t have a relationship with the company,” said Harwell, who was hired by Pilot Flying J after the April 15 raid on Pilot headquarters by FBI and IRS agents. “What you see here is typical of best practices in America.