Results tagged “racist”

After sitting around Centralia College as the heat soared towards ninety while David re-hydrated, we headed back to the car and hit I-5 for one of our last stops along the way to Portland. But just south of Centralia, we decided to make a quick stop to check out one of the sites that's always fascinated us—and nearly everyone else who takes I-5: the infamous "Uncle Sam" billboard.

In November, Mike Hamilton adds this racist joke political commentary to his notorious Uncle Sam billboard: In December, massive floods dunk that section of I-5 into suspiciously biblical amounts of water. Co-inkydink? Or is someone "up there" even more displeased with Hamilton's latest message than everyone else who's seen the billboard?...

A few weeks ago, Nobel Prize Laureate and co-discoverer of DNA Dr. James Watson blew through town, reflecting on how he's stayed away from stupid people, then delving into his now-customary slurry of sexist patois. Apparently he waited until he got across the pond to London to pull out the big guns:

The 79-year-old geneticist said he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours -- whereas all the testing says not really." He said he hoped that everyone was equal, but countered that “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.”

One film you won't find on 2007's best-of lists is the first movie we caught on Saturday night, Nothing is Private, the debut feature from American Beauty-scribe/Six Feet Under-creator Alan Ball. It's not that his adaption of Alicia Erian's semi-autobiographical novel Towelhead--the coming-of-age story of a seriously messed-up thirteen-year-old girl living with her strict Lebanese father in early 90s suburban Texas -- is bad, just fundamentally flawed. We just didn't buy that an adolescent so used by nearly every person in her life would be so relatively undamaged, though we did appreciate Ball's restraint in not further abusing a victim via exploitative camerawork. Issues of post-traumatic stress disorder aside, big ups to the ensemble cast, including a hugely pregnant Toni Collette, a seriously conflicted army reservist/creepy racist Aaron Eckhart, and dynamic newcomer Summer Bishil as the young girl at the heart of this darkly comic, occasionally absurdist tale.

--Hegelian dialectics are no problem for the Stranger's Charles Mudede, but Doobie Brothers lyrics are Greek to him.

Nowhere is racial bigotry more starkly communicated than during coverage of the NFL draft.

Why does the legislature want to require students to be able to read and write before they graduate high school?

A couple of months ago, the PI's Robert Jamieson publicized an issue with some sites using Google Maps data: Seattle's Martin Luther King Jr. Way South was showing up under its pre-1982 name, Empire Way South. "You're not going to say we are being racist," a Google spokeswoman wondered. No, I assured her. The point of this tale is that even the best technology can miss things -- and people with careful eyes can...

Howard Schultz is probably enjoying his first relaxing day in a while today after the Starbucks shareholder's meeting yesterday. At least, he finally had a chance to explain to everyone just what the hell he was talking about with that whole memo thing. You remember the memo--we're talking about the one where he complained that Starbucks had lost its way in the name of growth and had become a cookie cutter retail chain that was squeezing the romance out of caffeinated beverages. When he was dictating that memo it must have occurred to him that he'd be standing on the stage inside McCaw Hall someday soon explaining it. Yesterday was the day.

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing-- what's going on in the World of the -ist's?

Tons of classic Spiegelesque wit bombs dropped last night at the Benaroya Hall lecture/slide show/performance. Our favorite was the curt dismissal of Roy Lichtenstein's work at the very start: "He did for comics what Andy Warhol did for soup." Oh, Spiegelman, you dog... You get him!

Port of Seattle documents released Tuesday reveal a police chief fearful of a litigious union and overwhelmed by an e-mail scandal engulfing a third of his officers.

Continue reading "Port Police: Depraved Band of Misogynist Rageaholics Or Just Misunderstood?"

It seems that it's always about day two of the fest that we really fall in love with this place---the overheard intense discussions of films, the industry gossip, the random interactions with individuals you will never see again, and all that swag just ripe for the taking---really, these are a few of our favorite things.

KING 5's Investigators have their panties in a bunch about the racist and pornographic emails Port of Seattle police were sending on Port time, using Port computers. In their story, they can hardly bring themselves to present the liberally pixelized graphic evidence. Again and again. It turns out, "over a two-year period, 32 officers -- nearly a third of the entire force -- either received, saved, or passed on more than 175 inappropriate e-mails, including sexually explicit and pornographic images and racist videos and jokes."

Seattlest likes our champagne, and after perusing this article in the latest Fast Company Magazine, we just couldn't resist. The world of hip hop seems to be hell-bent on promoting everything from cars, clothes, and energy drinks. It was only inevitable that French champagne was next. After Jay Z had a falling out with "hip hop champagne juggernaut" Cristal over some racist comments, rap stars have been looking for alternatives - many in the form of their very own wine companies. Seems these brands are finally figuring out that hip hop really does have a big effect on revenue generation. After Busta Rhymes released his hit "Pass the Courvoisier" in 2001, the company saw a 30% increase in sales. Did you know there are even companies out there tracking the word counts on rap songs to pick out key brand names? Are indie bands ready to follow this trend? We doubt Modest Mouse Merlot is ready for the shelves anytime soon; but if the recent rash of car cross-promotion and One Tree Hill episodes are any indication, who knows....

Before we begin, we'd like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of James Kim. We are not, by any means, trying to discount that tragedy by juxtaposing posts about the Kims with more light-hearted posts. It's the nature of doing a compilation such as this one: we're trying to give a full slice of the goings-on in the Ist-a-Verse: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Grand Illusion is screening a film on Japanese architecture tonight called Kochuu. "Kochuu, which translates as “in the jar,” refers to the Japanese tradition of constructing small, enclosed physical spaces, which create the impression of a separate universe." Plays at 7:30 and 9pm.

Since we don't play the quiz at Kate's Pub every week, we missed the memo: Teams should come dressed up in costume. (Kate herself made a fetching serving wench.) Last night our team was among the large minority in street clothes.

Proving once and for all that there is literally no issue too inconsequential for human beings to bicker about, the blog I Heart Seattle ripped the Slog a new asshole for, among other things, "lacking clarity and standards," having too much "celebrity gossip," and "not linking to other local blogs."

The Mariners released Carl Everett today, to overwhelming joy of the M's blogosphere. Better yet, they brought up Chris Snelling, the Job of the Mariners minor league system, whose string of awful injury luck began in this game.

The Mariners play a children's game called "Flip" before they play each baseball game. In Flip you use your glove, hands and feet to pass a baseball around a circle. If you permit the ball to hit the ground, you're out.

SIFF enters its second full week with a slew of great documentaries, including the final screening of fair trade coffee doc Black Gold (Tuesday, 9:30pm @ the Egyptian). The directors, Marc and Nick Francis, will be in attendance, as will Tadesse Meskela, an Ethiopian Farm Cooperative Organizer featured in the film. The SIFF screenings mark the first time the directors and subject have been together since the making of the film---and the first time Meskela has seen the film on the big screen.

One super-cool thing about being a teacher is that so often you actually learn from your students! Recently, for example, a Bellevue Community College math instructor learned that maybe it’s not OK to use test questions that involve “Condoleeza” and “watermelon”.

LAist tracks an award-winning TV writer who worked on Good Times to a homeless shelter and sees a Little Old Lady get a jaywalking ticket because she can't get across fast enough (in the same post!). Poets invade Metro and an LAist contributor's new book asks WWJB.

We totally heart neo-Nazis. They're just so darn cute, what with those little swastikas and their quaint beliefs about white supremacy and the Protocols of Zion. So, of course, we had to go to the CHAC for their current production of God's Country.

Romeo and Juliet is one of those tales everybody knows, whether or not they've read it, seen it performed live, or watched one of the many film adaptations. So Seattlest kinda knew what to expect when we descended deep into the bowels of Center House for the play's opening night performance by the Seattle Shakespeare Company. We got the standard star-crossed lovers stuff, but director John Langs included a few modern updates, some of which we liked, and some...not so much.

Popeye Banned From Coast Guard: The d'rigouritude of body art can trace its lineage back to your grandfather's classic navy tattoos. The anchor, the battleship, the waving flag and the skull and bones may not be stretched as tautly across Grandpap's chest as they once were, but they're still occasionally on display. However, they don't seem to stop him from shaking his head at your tribal bands and eyebrow piercings. New Coast Guard regulations restricting tattoos and other body modifications were reported today in the P-I to put an end to it all. No more sleeves, face tats or split tongues - Sorry, Seattle, the Coast Guard isn't for you. "The 1940s, party-hard sailor is not the image we're going for," Chief Petty Officer Keith Alholm was quoted as saying.

Ray Allen tied a team record for points in a playoff game with 45, and the Sonics overcame an early 19-point deficit to beat Sacramento last night.

Keith D. Gilbert, by all accounts the scourge of Roosevelt, was arrested in that neighborhood early Tuesday by federal agents. Gilbert is a famous racist and promotor of some Aryan thing or other who has served time for a previous plot to explode Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but he's better known in Roosevelt for being a thug landlord and neighbor who repeatedly threatens, sues, and intimidates people in the area.