Courtesy The Conversation

 In many ways this is a sequel to my last column. Yes, it has to do with Critical Race Theory, but so much more. -KWC

 The argument I hear all the time is that those of us who prefer Critical Race Theory must hate our country, that CRT runs down our country… etc. Ah, yes, another crappy, insult-based, talking point. So sad that crappy talking points that should be laughed at and tossed in the trash need firm answers, but in an age of cultism and gullibility, unfortunately, they so often do. Here is a firm answer..
 France…
 …Germany…
 … South Africa…
 ..these and other countries have faced their demons, what they did wrong. Maybe not completely. Maybe not as much as they should have. But they have faced them and the lasting consequences of what was so wrong. And they have become better, kinder, more complete nations for that.
 You know who hasn’t faced them? Read more

 Imagine a neighbor who not only doesn’t care if his dogs decorate your lawn daily, but keeps saying he’d love to force your face down into it. Love to smear it all over your face. And you KNOW he’s serious and won’t deal with you any other way. That is much of today’s more radical right wing

 You know the poo is strong when talking points go from chanting to hang Pence, Pelosi, to the insurrectionists were BLM, to they were just like tourists. Then when fellow chanter, Ashli E. Babbitt, tries to get at these same leaders to murder them and she gets killed. Here comes the poo again! She supposedly was “murdered” and a “martyr.” This from the party that brought us Stand Your Ground (apparently a Capitol cop has no right to that?) and legislation to make driving over protesters perfectly legal
 Morning Joe…
 There was a debate between one more left, one more right, about Critical Race Theory. The rightie blathered on and on using the usual Commie, Socialist, absolute nonsense blah, blah talking points… excuse me: ACCUSATIONS. His fast banter reminded me of the bottomless vessel dog who decorates your lawn every day, year after year.
  There is absolutely NOTHING “Communist” about considering slavery’s and racism’s impact on our history. Does anyone think Stalin, or Khrushchev, or… would have tolerated teaching about the history of Russian abuse of dissidents? About the poisonings, the many murders, including a host of journalists? The true history of the Gulag?
 If anything teaching about slavery’s impact on its victims and our history is the OPPOSITE of what some dared call “Communism.” So that’s one reason, out of so many, to consider teaching how slavery, oppression and segregation treated blacks and affected society as a whole. And how we treated the natives. And how we treated the Japanese who lived in the US. Muslims. The Irish. And to some extent still do. Read more

 This will be no defense of Bill Cosby, There has been enough septic tank sludge broke free under that former star’s bridge to make defense an absurd, even evil, notion. But I am bothered by some of the left and society in general’s cries when it comes to self incrimination, “BUT it’s JUST a technicality!!!” Really? “Just?”
 Dismissing self incrimination as just a technicality is a “the king has no clothes” moment. Our legal system couldn’t exist without technicalities, and that is both a good and bad thing. Specifics matter. We make agreements in court to find truth, and to pave the way for possible civil litigation. I’m not a fan of that last one because it paves the way for what none dare call double jeopardy. But it also keeps court proceedings from becoming fishing expeditions where the legal system will do anything to get at a defendant, to make them look bad in ways that have NOTHING to do with what they are accused of. The mere accusation of what has nothing to do with the prosecution can affect a jury in that way. A defendant testifying against himself opens up that hole to hell.
 I understand how uncomfortable this is, how crazily insane the concept that all those claims of rape were consensual is. But obviously we can’t special design our courts to prosecute who we don’t trust, don’t like, feel did SOMETHING so we’ll get them any way we can. How dangerous is that? Read more

 When it comes to actual art, not the arts, I claim to be no Matisse, Bill Carman or Charles Bragg. I think some 5 year olds do better. But I have been having fun playing the part of artist. Coming from a concept artist’s perspective, and since this column was inspired by one of my meager efforts called “Evil Angel,” I thought it fitting to publish it here.

 I understand. In the Bible angels are considered a separate race, separate set of beings. Beings that predate humanity: created by God. Guess God was bored. Eternity can do that. One can twiddle one’s eternal omnipotent thumbs only so long

before, “Oh, Hell, I have to do something! Did I just say, ‘Hell?'” Oh, NO!!!
 And then, “Oh, crud, now I need angels to balance all that EVIL…”
 Then, among the blessed… poof! Evil Angel.
 ”Oh, CRUD!!!”
 I’m joking, of course, though sometimes I do wonder if demons and angels, IF they exist, might be the same beings. I wonder, if there is an afterlife, if it’s all the same place. We make it what it is, just like sometimes we do in life. People are all too talented at creating their own, all too personal, hells.
 Evil Angel, in this case, is a metaphor for what is inside us: when our better angels are defeated by convincing ourselves doing evil will eventually be for the greater good.
 Enter politics. Read more