Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforoneday...

Okay, so maybe it's possible that, within the context of Florida's insane "self-defense" laws, George Zimmerman was not-guilty. If there really is a law that you can accost someone in the dark for no reason and then murder them if they panic and push back...well, there you go. But regardless of any of that, there is no fucking question that George Fucking Zimmerman is a pathetic wannabe rent-a-cop who was suspicious of a black teenager for no reason other than being black, chased him (against police orders, note), and murdered him. Even if you reluctantly concede that, by the letter of the law, this verdict is okay, the fact remains that this piece of degenerate filth slaughtered an innocent young man for no reason that's even a tiny bit morally justifiable. And unless we're being disingenuous assholes, we have to concede that this would never, ever have happened if Martin had been white. It's a sickening situation any way you look at it, and if it's somehow legal, then, in an ideal world, it would spur some serious legal reform.

It sure is good that the Supremes decided to gut the Civil Rights Act. Who could possibly think we still have a race problem in America? Black President! Boom!   Okay, so obviously I'm not saying anything that we all didn't already know, but the juxtaposition is certainly stark and sickening.  If anything, it sure seems to me that we have more racist slime oozing out of the woodwork now that Obama's President. Perhaps on some level they feel emboldened now that they can point to OMG ISLAMOKENYASOCIALIST as a concrete reason they're being oppressed? I don't know. But I do know this: the people who think that Trayvon Martin's killing and subsequent legal proceedings were horrible and grotesque and the people who did their damnedest to portray Martin as a "thug" for doing normal kid things and are now hysterically celebrating the fact that Zimmerman got off--these two groups of people split very neatly down party lines. We've long known that republicans are awful creatures, of course, but at this point, when you vote republican you're not just voting for the repeal of all taxes ever on rich people--you're also voting for quite open white-supremacist cheerleaders. And the fact that the fact that this is now open knowledge is sure to have no appreciable negative effect on voting patterns...wow, are we ever fucked.

If you're going to read one piece of commentary on the murder and trial, check out Charles Pierce. He's the best.

In other horrible, shitty news to come out of yesterday, Tunch, John Cole's beloved cat of twelve years, was killed by a dog. I've never met Cole or communicated with him in any way, but anyone who reads his posts regularly can easily see that he's one of the most stand-up guys around, and I've always enjoyed reading his postings about his pets interspersed with the political stuff. I've lost pets before too (five dogs, three cats), but never in such an awful way. I have to tell you, hearing about Tunch's death affected me more than that of any other animal that wasn't my own. However, there's also a silver lining of sorts, in that people are being really good about the whole thing. It actually serves as a counterpoint of sorts to the Martin awfulness, to which there is no silver lining whatsoever. People are good. Not enough of them, maybe, but you have to take what you can get in dark times like these.