More bad journals

Synthese - Apparently criticism of intelligent design is frowned upon.

Psychology Today - Racism dressed up as science in the form of an essay by a regular contributor to their website called "Why are black women rated less physically attractive than other women?" Yes, it was quickly removed, but the fact that it was written in the first place is disturbing. How can this guy have evidence that "black women are objectively less physically attractive than other women"? Has he seen Halle Berry?

Both are added to the list.

Best line ever

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Mosque-Erade
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

John Oliver: You can build a catholic church next to a playground. Should you?

This whole ground zero mosque nonstory, noncontroversy is basically right-wingers being racist and trying find a way to get attention from their failures in time for November, the media gladly complying with whatever they say, and the democrats hemorrhaging votes by feebly attempting to make the fake outrage die down.

Two places I could cross out now

I am thinking about the long list of places I will apply to for residency in a few short months. The list is growing by the week, but two just got crossed out: The University of Arizona and St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix. I figured I don't want to spend 5 years living in a place where I'll be asked to "show my papers."

The Intolerant Neutral Planet

The recent, blatantly racist Swiss vote banning the building minarets is upsetting, but, to me, not surprising at all. This is coming from a country where the ruling party's banners featured three white sheep kicking a black sheet off a Swiss flag with the words "For our security" under it. Although, as a non-white person, I have been subjected to subtle racism before, Switzerland is the only place where I experienced overt racism and the only place where I felt uncomfortable.
Here's my experience. A few years ago, I was at a conference in Germany and afterwords, since I'm into mountain climbing, I decided to make a short trip to Switzerland. I took the train from Frankfurt to Basel and an hour before we got to the Swiss border, I see three border guards enter my train car, talk into their radios and headed straight to me (the only brown person in the car). They asked for my passport. I showed it to them. They then asked to search my bags. Went through both my bags. I had a poster from the conference and they asked to open the tube and took out the poster (tearing it in the process). They then asked why I am going to Switzerland, for how long, who I'm staying with, whether I'm looking for a job, what kind of work I do, etc. They asked me to prove to them how long I'm planning on staying in Switzerland. I wasn't sure how to do this. Eventually, showing a print out of my return flight worked. After 45 min, they let me go and left (no questions to anyone else in the full car). Meanwhile, the entire train is staring at me (the presumed terrorist).
Things didn't improve once I got to Switzerland. Everywhere I went, I got a suspicious look. Especially in stores (every store), where the employees followed me throughout the store (to make sure I wasn't stealing anything, I guess). I started playing a game with them, where I would walk around in circles in the store and watch them follow me, to see how many laps I could make them do.
I was surprised that a country that I've always seen as so benign (so neutral) could be so hateful towards others. I suppose Switzerland's "neutralness" is really a manifestation of it's isolationism and xenophobia.



Zapp Brannigan:

With enemies you know where they stand but with Neutrals, who knows? It sickens me.

You know you're a racist when...

you have to tell people how many black friends you have.

Here's what a justice of the peace in Louisiana said after refusing to give a mixed couple a marriage license:

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

Wow! He must really not be a racist, if he thinks that black people are clean enough to use his bathroom.

Well, I guess we've gotta keep it

Tapes of Richard Nixon discussing his views on abortion were released today. Here's one of his opinions:

“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” he told an aide, before adding, “Or a rape.”

Only 36 years ago, an American president said this... amazing. Since I'm only "a brown", not "a black," I guess we'll have to keep my unborn child (which, by the way will - hopefully - be born late Dec or early Jan... I'm glad my tough med school rotations will be out of the way by then).

Shouldn't medical professionals know better?

I was reading a blog in Medscape (a branch of webmd that focuses on medical education; unfortunately requires registration) in which a med student talks about homophobic comments made by her attendings (and how in medical settings, homophobic comments are more tolerated than racist comments). Unfortunately, racism, sexism and homophobia are as prevalent in the clinics as they are in the real world (after all, doctors do come from the real world), but I found it pretty surprising that in the poll attached to it, 84% of respondents have experienced a racist or homophobic comment in a medical setting (and even more upsetting was the fact that a third of those aren't bothered by it). Granted, this is an online poll with small numbers (and anecdotally, I've heard similar experiences from many other med students), but the fact that it even exists is not right. I know that there are good and bad people out there and there's nothing keeping a bigoted asshole from becoming a doctor, but it saddens me to think that people in a field that is devoted to caring about others can see nothing wrong with hating someone just for who they are.

Remind me not to drive in Texas

In many states it's legal for the local police to seize property of criminals in their jurisdiction. This is meant to encourage local law enforcement to catch drug runners (who have nice cars or lots of cash on them) by letting them keep the booty they find. Unfortunately, some jurisdictions decided that it's a great way to steal things from minorities. They threaten the people they pull over (with bogus charges like "driving too close to the white line"), get them to sign over their property and never charge them with anything. Of the 40 people contacted by the attorney of one of the victims, 39 were black. It's not just a few bad cops, they have the whole system set up so that they could quickly seize valuables from whoever they pull over:

The process apparently is so routine in Tenaha [TX] that Guillory discovered pre-signed and pre-notarized police affidavits with blank spaces left for an officer to describe the property being seized.

It is absolutely sickening that this can be happening. The mayor (the only person who's responded to calls) says "We try to enforce the law here." Go to hell...

Hopefully the lawsuit currently against the city goes somewhere.