Combat! - Page 142 of 406 - A blog by Dan Brooks

After Ferguson, man frames ex-girlfriend for racism

By Dan Brooks in Contemporary Media December 2, 2014 1 Comment

Free and democratic discourse from Tumblr

For the last week or so, one of my favorite Twitter feeds has been Yes, You’re Racist, which retweets racist posts about Ferguson. It’s awesome for several reasons, one of which is the irony of people who want to use a global platform to disseminate their views freaking out when people across the globe read their views. That’s good fun. I’m mostly a believer in shame as an enforcement tool, but it’s important to remember that not everyone on the internet is speaking with her own voice. Consider Brianna Rivera, who became the object of a campaign to get her fired from her job after her ex-boyfriend spoofed her Facebook account to post racist status updates. Props to Willy for the link. Today is December 2, 2014, and you can frame people for racism now.

Do fetuses matter more than women?

By Dan Brooks in Ethical Dilemmas December 1, 2014 0 Comment

A developing fetus, pictured here with a grown fetus who could not be avoided.

A developing fetus, pictured here with a grown fetus who could not be cropped out

Over at The New Republic, Rebecca Traister has written a provocative essay titled Let’s Just Say It: Women Matter More Than Fetuses Do. Kombat! Kids: can you cut two words from that headline? Extra credit: can you explain why declaring that an adult woman has more rights than a cluster of cells feels transgressive? About two thirds of the way through, Traister suggests that it might feel that way since Roe v. Wade. As women gained rights not just to legal abortions but also to economic and political parity, they lost the aura of sanctity that came with purely reproductive value:

What rose up instead was a new character, less threatening than the empowered woman: the baby, who, by virtue of not actually existing as a formed human being, could be invested with all the qualities—purity, defenselessness, dependence—that women used to embody, before they became free and disruptive.

The way we talk about abortion suggests that we are most comfortable with people who don’t exist.

Gay marriage good, mendacity bad, Hawkeyes both

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized November 28, 2014 1 Comment

Greetings from sunny Los Angeles, where Combat! blog has made it through Thanksgiving with an unusually mild hangover. Everything is great, including the excuse that today is basically a holiday, and I basically don’t have to write a blog. Yet here we are. Fortunately past deadlines have magically become present publications, so you can still read about my dumb opinions in the Missoula Independent, where this week I pretend to be even dumber than I actually am. Gay marriage has literally blown the cornerstone from under straight marriage in Montana. That’s my line and I’m sticking to it. We’ll be back Monday with a little less irony and a little more ability to focus our eyes. Go Hawks!

Wilson grand jury did not function normally, experts say

By Dan Brooks in Go berserk? November 26, 2014 0 Comment

Officer Darren Wilson in the hospital, hours after being attacked by Michael Brown

As details emerge from the grand jury investigation into Darren Wilson’s fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, commentators are crying foul. The New York Times editorial board issued a scathing indictment of the decision not to indict, saying that prosecutor Robert McCulloch—“widely viewed in the minority community as being in the pockets of the police”—handled the proceedings “in the worst possible way.” The National Bar Association issued a press release “questioning how the grand jury, considering the evidence before them, could reach the conclusion that Darren Wilson should not be indicted” and called for federal charges. Meanwhile, at Vox, Ezra Klein has called Wilson’s account of the shooting “literally unbelievable.”

Wilson jury does not indict; Obama appeals to rule of law

By Dan Brooks in Fascism November 25, 2014 1 Comment

Protestors flee from tear gas last night in Ferguson, MO. Photo by Justin Sullivan of Getty Images

Yesterday, a grand jury decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed back teenager Michael Brown. The decision was made in the morning but not announced until 8pm, presumably to encourage would-be protestors toward sleep. That did not work. The National Guard protected the local police station, freeing police officers to disperse protests and then quell riots. From the White House, President Obama called for calm. “First and foremost, we are a nation built on the rule of law,” he said. “And so we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury’s to make.” Meanwhile, at Five Thirty-Eight, Nate Silver observed that of the 162,000 cases that went before federal grand juries in 2010, only 11 declined indictments.