Of Witch Hunts and Which Hunts

The lynch mobs are out in force these days huh? I always feel uncomfortable when the pitchforks and angry mobs come out. Especially since they seem so selective. Louis CK came out of the sexual harassment closet last week. Unlike the other guys he didn't try to fight the power, but just was like, "Yeah, I did it."

p.s. Why do these pervs all look like pale skinned homeless drunks?
I read his apology. It was full of how much these women 'admired' him and how he 'took advantage' of their admiration by asking them if they wanted to see his penis...
That kind of puzzled me because assuming he was meeting these women in business conditions, what part of the business meeting involves the notion that your colleagues might want a peek at your privates?
I tried to understand it using my one and only guinea pig; my son. So like Michelle Obama said, it's true in my case, I did kind of mollycoddle him except that I didn't. I say that because looking at men around me, I kind of figured that they have really fragile egos because they didn't have a foundation of a sense of self. So I always tried to give my kid that. To let him know that he was valued and that he was capable and I always tried to let him make decisions for himself just so that he knew he could. I could tell you how this backfired on me in adolescence but this isn't a parenting post.

So yeah, he does have a belief in himself and in his importance in the world. And when he talks about girls, maybe he does feel that he's really important to their happiness. Certainly, he thinks (knows) that he's important to mine. I see how he goes around feeling cocky and like the greatest thing since sliced bread. But that's just teenagerhood, right? And even with all that, I don't think he would whip out his penis to show someone because he thought they admired him. I mean, I'll ask him, but I don't think the notion would occur to him.
So if that notion wouldn't occur to a cocky teenager, why would it occur to a full grown, middle-aged man? These are just some of the things I wonder about.
However, back to the lynch mob.

So Louis CK was masturbating in front of women and the lynch mob is very annoyed with...Aziz Ansari.
Yep.
They mad at Aziz because TWO YEARS AGO, when asked by a Daily Beast reporter about his mentor, he said: "I'm not talking about that."
What people seem to forget about these harassers is that that's what they might be TO YOU, but they are other things to other people. Aziz didn't rush to Louis' defense. He didn't try to justify what the man was doing. He just said, "I'm not talking about that."
To blame him for that is like blaming Nicki Minaj for paying her brother's legal costs. He might be a disgusting child rapist, but he's also her brother. Loyalty is a rare and precious thing, especially in this day and age. I'm not going to blame anyone for standing by their friend.
All these accusations being flung about left and right are making me uncomfortable. The only court that seems to matter is that of public opinion. How about someone files a police case? Sexual harassment is illegal, right? It is a crime? So file a complaint. This business of bringing stories to the blogs, just allegations being published as fact...it's...unsavory.

Besides, getting all these men fired is not the solution. Oh, I'm not saying they should keep their jobs; I'm just saying it's not the solution. What is really required is a paradigm shift.
In the eighties and nineties, AIDS swept across Africa, taking whole villages along with it especially in Nyanza and Uganda. This is because of the communities' sexual practices. All that was left was young children and old people. So the government of Uganda launched a campaign on safe sex. That led to an entire generation of Ugandans who grew up not knowing what it felt like to have sex without a condom. For to solve the problem, they had to engender behavior change in the whole entire country.
That's what this sexual harassment problem needs. Everyone needs to adopt new patterns of behavior. The lynch mobs are a fad. They will do nothing except make sure some men lose their jobs temporarily. In another, five to ten years, Brett Ratner, Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey will be "rehabilitated" and allowed to join polite society again. That's just how the weasel pops.
Changing your behavior is hard, it sucks balls. It usually never happens unless needs must. Like Bulitia in Requiscant in Pace, forced to go from husband and father and free man to slave bonded to a monster. He had to adapt in order to survive and that's what we'll all be forced to do.
This month is horror month (go with it) and you have a choice...between a pair of ghost lovers trying to survive the afterlife, or an African slave, trying to survive his new master who is just a little bit more than human. Which will you choose?

Karma is a Bitch

"How people treat you is their karma. 

How you respond to it, is yours."

Do you agree?
I was thinking about this while I read an article interviewing author Jodi Picoult. She was reflecting on her own racism and telling a few stories of how black Americans seek to make the environment 'comfortable' for their white countrymen. One lady apparently carried a bottle of Voss water on the train to indicate to her fellow travelers that it was okay to sit next to her.

Frankly if it was me and no one wanted to sit next to me because of my very dark skin color, I would take it as a chance to spread myself out, put my bag on the bench next to me, extract a book, make myself comfortable, maybe put my feet up, and read for the rest of the journey. Because you know what? You not wanting to sit next to me is absolutely not my problem. And to make it my problem is to add stress to my life that I don't need.
Then she told this story about a black nurse. Some nazi wannabe had a baby born at the hospital where she works and when he saw the nurse working in the NICU he complained to the hospital admin that he did not want a black nurse touching his baby. Apparently, the hospital just made a note of it in his file...NO BLACK NURSE SHOULD TOUCH SO AND SO'S CHILD.

Question; does that mean that they had to take a look at their rotation to make sure there was always a white nurse on staff? Or were there times when that child was left unattended because there was no white nurse currently working? What about black doctors? Were they also exempt? What if the only pediatrician was a person of color? Would the hospital have hired a new one to cater to the skinhead's kid? Just how far would everyone bend over backward to accommodate this racism? Americans really blow my mind sometimes. Not to say that there is no bias or racism anywhere else on earth, but America is the only place where it is a semi-official policy. Where segregation is still very much publicly tolerated. Like if that happened here, everyone would look at you like you like you just lost your damned mind and go about their business as if you hadn't said anything.
It must be stressful to live in that kind of environment. All the more reason not to make other people's actions your problem. That nurse should look at being banned from touching that future nazi like a break from work.
"Oh, the time I would have spent looking after this child, let's see, I could apply for a Ph.D. program with the money I'm going to get from the discrimination lawsuit imma file. Get out of this bullshit ward and go work for Johns Hopkins or something. The CDC."
Because you can wallow in the unfairness of life or you can take that lemon and make lemonade like nobody's business.

Speaking of lemons, dude! Have you heard +Rihanna rap on the new N.E.R.D song? Straight fire. Is there nothing my president can't do? I am further inspired. Now if I can turn that inspiration to focus, I would be on fire myself. My cousin posted an excerpt from a self-development seminar she was attending stating that focus was about feelings.That hit me right in my solar plexus because I've had difficulty finding focus for my ghostwriting work. I realized it is because I've been bored by it. Ambivalent. And if my feelings don't change, my work will definitely suffer. I think with nostalgia how much I used to enjoy putting pen to paper...okay fingers to keyboard; and I wonder where I lost it. I still have it with my own work, but for other people, not so much. I probably need to get that back; like yesterday.
Knowing the problem is half the solution right?
My problems are not entertaining, are they?

Tyrese's are though. I used to follow him on Instagram long ago, but I stopped because he's an idiot. No seriously, I'm not trying to insult him. He's a legit idiot. An idiot with lots of talent but not much sense. Kind of an idiot savant. But this last week or three he's managed to get himself in all the blogs with his Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson/Baby Mama feud. I kind of felt like, second-hand embarrassment for him because chile...You have to have some sort of chill. Some self-awareness. Otherwise, it gets real painful outchea in these streets. I suspect that secondhand embarrassment is what made the Smiths (Will and Jada) raid their petty cash and send him 5million to stay off the gram. Because seriously...ouch.
I think back to all the franchises Tyrese has been in, and I wonder at him saying he's broke. I remember that he fucked up the joint album he was supposed to do with Ginuwine and Tank because he wanted more money than them. And ended up making no money. Meanwhile, he's broke, or so he says.
Make good decisions people.
Same thing with Mary J. Like thirty years of hits and she's on negative eleven million.
What the fuck?

Meanwhile, my president lost almost all her money when she was just barely out of her teens, worked hard to make it back tenfold, and successfully sued her management to get her original eleven million back. What does she have that they don't? Good management? An education? what? And can they possibly get it? Is it too late?
It's nice to see that other people's lives are a mess right? It makes you think that you're not doing so bad. I rather look at people like Rihanna and feel inspired to do better than look at Tyrese and wonder what went wrong. A man has talent, he has opportunity, what does he do with it?
I'd rather ask that question of myself.
What I am trying to do with it, is edutain y'all with stories.
This month, November is horror month.
Don't question it, just go with it.
Have you read In the Shadow of the Styx yet?