America's Sweethearts
October 24, 2010 @ 5:00 a.m.
About an hour and a half ago, my blog stopped working while I was in the middle of a project, and I got an idea for another project called "America's Sweethearts."
What if I go around and take pictures of the blog posts that harassing celebrities put up about themselves, and then put those here, on display, so that the thousands of people who read this blog can see them all in one place?
It's not just a few people in the entertainment industry who put up sick and harassing references on blog posts that show up on Google searches of their names; it's a LOT of people. It's A-listers, B-listers, all the listers who want to move up the ladder; being horrible about me has become extremely fashionable for them. Everybody wants to get some of what the Obama adminstration is handing out to people who are willing to be a part of it. People I've never had any kind of contact with, people who jumped on the bandwagon; I'm a pinata to them, a pinata full of movie deals, magazine covers, corporate endorsements and government connections.
You don't have to wait for me to take those pictures to see it; Google most anyone in Hollywood and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Start with the major A-listers who have the "Everybody loves us" image, and realize that, except for the new ad that says "Feed Your Kids the Arts" with a picture of a yogurt cup, most of what you'll see is much better than what was up for months and months until recently.
Don't stop with movie stars; check out singers, models, other government officials, the official websites for your favorite brands, all the magazines from Newseek to Vogue, all the newspapers from one side of the country to another. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the world that runs the world is out to get me.
5:57 a.m.
USA Weekend is owned by Gannett, the same company that publishes the Burlington Free Press and a lot of newspapers like the Burlington Free Press all across the country. This weekend, Jeff Bridges is just the latest person to show up in USA Weekend and go out of his way to call me a name.
The pictures are all from the cover and the article that goes with the cover; the blurbs about Winona Ryder and Natalie Portman are below the article in which Jeff Bridges talks about himself, his new movies, and "Sea Hunt." I got nauseous typing that out; it's not a new feeling. What people mean when they treat someone this way is "We matter and you don't. We are Somebodies, and you're nobody," when the truth is that only ignorance and viciousness make anyone try to treat another person that way. It doesn't matter how much money you have or how important other people are; if you're willing to act this way, ignorance and viciousness are the reasons that you're doing it.
It's funny to the people that it doesn't happen to; nobody treats white men this way, and I think that my expectations that the Obamas as black people would extrapolate from what is usually the black American experience and refuse to join in with what was originally some Hollywood and media harassment were too high. My expectations of this President and his wife were too high, and I think that the difference between what I hoped they would be and what they really are has made me angrier in my expressions of dissent than I might otherwise have been if my expectations of them hadn't been too high for them to live up to. I'm disappointed in them.
About an hour and a half ago, my blog stopped working while I was in the middle of a project, and I got an idea for another project called "America's Sweethearts."
What if I go around and take pictures of the blog posts that harassing celebrities put up about themselves, and then put those here, on display, so that the thousands of people who read this blog can see them all in one place?
It's not just a few people in the entertainment industry who put up sick and harassing references on blog posts that show up on Google searches of their names; it's a LOT of people. It's A-listers, B-listers, all the listers who want to move up the ladder; being horrible about me has become extremely fashionable for them. Everybody wants to get some of what the Obama adminstration is handing out to people who are willing to be a part of it. People I've never had any kind of contact with, people who jumped on the bandwagon; I'm a pinata to them, a pinata full of movie deals, magazine covers, corporate endorsements and government connections.
You don't have to wait for me to take those pictures to see it; Google most anyone in Hollywood and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Start with the major A-listers who have the "Everybody loves us" image, and realize that, except for the new ad that says "Feed Your Kids the Arts" with a picture of a yogurt cup, most of what you'll see is much better than what was up for months and months until recently.
Don't stop with movie stars; check out singers, models, other government officials, the official websites for your favorite brands, all the magazines from Newseek to Vogue, all the newspapers from one side of the country to another. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the world that runs the world is out to get me.
5:57 a.m.
USA Weekend is owned by Gannett, the same company that publishes the Burlington Free Press and a lot of newspapers like the Burlington Free Press all across the country. This weekend, Jeff Bridges is just the latest person to show up in USA Weekend and go out of his way to call me a name.
The pictures are all from the cover and the article that goes with the cover; the blurbs about Winona Ryder and Natalie Portman are below the article in which Jeff Bridges talks about himself, his new movies, and "Sea Hunt." I got nauseous typing that out; it's not a new feeling. What people mean when they treat someone this way is "We matter and you don't. We are Somebodies, and you're nobody," when the truth is that only ignorance and viciousness make anyone try to treat another person that way. It doesn't matter how much money you have or how important other people are; if you're willing to act this way, ignorance and viciousness are the reasons that you're doing it.
It's funny to the people that it doesn't happen to; nobody treats white men this way, and I think that my expectations that the Obamas as black people would extrapolate from what is usually the black American experience and refuse to join in with what was originally some Hollywood and media harassment were too high. My expectations of this President and his wife were too high, and I think that the difference between what I hoped they would be and what they really are has made me angrier in my expressions of dissent than I might otherwise have been if my expectations of them hadn't been too high for them to live up to. I'm disappointed in them.
The Burlington Free Press, October 24, 2010, under the direction of James Fogler, President and Publisher of the Burlington Free Press since September, 2010:
The Burlington Free Press, October 24, 2010, front page of the"G," or "Living" section; here's an example of how the bigotry and the harassment are turning back the clock in a negative way for black people. A slur that used to get used against black people a lot was to say that their hair looked like pubic hair.
October 24, 2010 @ 7:57 a.m.
I'm not sure what's going on with the Sunday New York Times. The whole thing is really vicious, but for the moment I'm going to just talk about the full-page ad for The Fistula Foundation on page 12 of the New York Tims Magazine. It has a picture of a young black woman on it, a caption under the name "The Fistula Foundation" that says "from despair to dignity," and then one logo that says "BBB accredited charity" and another logo that says Charity Navigator.
The battery is still charging on my camera, or I'd take a picture. As it is, I'll describe it instead for now. I'm putting one word from the ad in bold print.
Here's what the ad says:
"Wabiwa was seven months pregnant. She was gang raped by five men. Her baby died. But, her nightmare wasn't over."
Then there's a quote from Pulitzer Prize Winner Nicholas D. Kristof that says:
"Just about the worst thing that can happen to a teenage girl in this world is to develop an obstetric fistula that leaves her trickling bodily wastes, stinking and shunned by everyone around her."
Then the ad goes on to say this:
"After delivering her stillborn baby, Wabiwa was left continuously leaking urine, the sign of fistula. Fortunately, Wabiwa got the curative surgery she desperately needed at the Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo by the dedicated team headed by Dr. Denis Mukwege, and funded by the Fistula Foundation.
Tragically, the World Health Organization estimates two to three million women suffer with untreated fistulas, for want of surgery that could transform their lives. We're working hard to help more women like Wabiwa. Learn how you can sponsor a life-transforming surgery for only $450."
Maybe this organization knew that I was getting harassed by people calling me "leak," and they hoped that I'd talk about their charity online in order to give them more publicity. Or maybe the Fistula Foundation is just part of the harassment and hoping to get government funding by calling me leak and allowing their ad to appear in the Sunday New York Times as part of a severe harassment issue from the New York Times today.
Copyright L. Kochman October 24, 2010
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October 24, 2010 @ 4:25 p.m.
I hope the Fistula Foundation gets all the funding that it needs, but I have to question what it did. It seems to me that what's leaking out of our society at an accelerated and completely preventable rate is integrity, and social gains that were made on equal rights for everyone through the hard work and the suffering of people in decades and centuries past.
I'm not sure what's going on with the Sunday New York Times. The whole thing is really vicious, but for the moment I'm going to just talk about the full-page ad for The Fistula Foundation on page 12 of the New York Tims Magazine. It has a picture of a young black woman on it, a caption under the name "The Fistula Foundation" that says "from despair to dignity," and then one logo that says "BBB accredited charity" and another logo that says Charity Navigator.
The battery is still charging on my camera, or I'd take a picture. As it is, I'll describe it instead for now. I'm putting one word from the ad in bold print.
Here's what the ad says:
"Wabiwa was seven months pregnant. She was gang raped by five men. Her baby died. But, her nightmare wasn't over."
Then there's a quote from Pulitzer Prize Winner Nicholas D. Kristof that says:
"Just about the worst thing that can happen to a teenage girl in this world is to develop an obstetric fistula that leaves her trickling bodily wastes, stinking and shunned by everyone around her."
Then the ad goes on to say this:
"After delivering her stillborn baby, Wabiwa was left continuously leaking urine, the sign of fistula. Fortunately, Wabiwa got the curative surgery she desperately needed at the Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo by the dedicated team headed by Dr. Denis Mukwege, and funded by the Fistula Foundation.
Tragically, the World Health Organization estimates two to three million women suffer with untreated fistulas, for want of surgery that could transform their lives. We're working hard to help more women like Wabiwa. Learn how you can sponsor a life-transforming surgery for only $450."
Maybe this organization knew that I was getting harassed by people calling me "leak," and they hoped that I'd talk about their charity online in order to give them more publicity. Or maybe the Fistula Foundation is just part of the harassment and hoping to get government funding by calling me leak and allowing their ad to appear in the Sunday New York Times as part of a severe harassment issue from the New York Times today.
Copyright L. Kochman October 24, 2010
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October 24, 2010 @ 4:25 p.m.
I hope the Fistula Foundation gets all the funding that it needs, but I have to question what it did. It seems to me that what's leaking out of our society at an accelerated and completely preventable rate is integrity, and social gains that were made on equal rights for everyone through the hard work and the suffering of people in decades and centuries past.
Page 12 of The New York Times Magazine, October 24, 2010: Ad for the Fistula Foundation
October 24, 2010 @ 4:47 p.m.
I'm wondering if The Fistula Foundation is trying to take revenge on me because of what I wrote about Stand Up To Cancer. I think that Stand Up to Cancer is an extremely dangerous organization and will have long-term, permanently deleterious effects not just on how most people will end up getting treated for cancer, but on health care in general.
Copyright L. Kochman October 24, 2010/last edited September 26, 2011 @ 11:10 a.m.
I'm wondering if The Fistula Foundation is trying to take revenge on me because of what I wrote about Stand Up To Cancer. I think that Stand Up to Cancer is an extremely dangerous organization and will have long-term, permanently deleterious effects not just on how most people will end up getting treated for cancer, but on health care in general.
Copyright L. Kochman October 24, 2010/last edited September 26, 2011 @ 11:10 a.m.