From The Qu'ran?

This video made me laugh my ass right off of my socks...

"George, is everybody in outer space white?"

When the first trailers for the new Star Wars movie came out there was a lot of carping from some Star Wars fans. One scene showed a black man is in stormtrooper armor. They complained because in a previous film it was established that the stormtroopers were all cloned from the same guy, played by Temuera Morrison, who is Maori. (I think these complaints are bogus, as discussed below, but let's run with it for now.)

These objections in turn raised numerous reactions from others who have called such comments "racist." But this is misguided: when people said, "What's a black guy doing wearing stormtrooper armor?" they weren't necessarily complaining that he was black, but that he looked nothing like the original actor that all stormtroopers were supposed to be cloned from. It's not unreasonable to mention that the actor was black to emphasize the fact that no attempt whatsoever was made to maintain continuity with the facts established in the previous film.

However, the original complainers were wrong to object in the first place: one of the plot points in the original movie was that Luke and Han don stormtrooper armor and infiltrate the Deathstar. During Leia's rescue she comments about Luke being a little short for a stormtrooper. He wasn't shot on sight, so it's clear all stormtroopers are not identical (and if you watch the film you can clearly see that stormtrooper height varies).

Furthermore, the events of the latest film take place half a century after the establishment of the clone army. Is it so hard to believe that, with so many political and military upheavals, the military, in order to meet quotas, was forced to recruit normal human beings instead of relying on a limited number of factories to pump out expensive clones? Clones that can't hit the broad side of a barn with their blasters? That alone is reason enough to start looking for a new source of stormtroopers.

One of the criticisms of the original film was that the actors were all white. This raised eyebrows at the time:

There’s a famous story about the first Star Wars film told by filmmaker John Landis, director of Animal House and a close friend to George Lucas. “I remember after George Lucas shot Star Wars in London, he showed it to all of us and I said to him after the screening: ‘George, is everybody in outer space white?’”

In later movies Lucas cast actors such as Samuel L. Jackson, Billy Dee Williams, Jimmy Smits and Morrison in major roles. The latest movie is simply continuing that trend.

But it raises the question: what skin color would people in outer space have?

If they're like humans here, it depends on the environment they originally came from. Skin color correlates with UV exposure. People who live near the equator have darker skin, due to higher concentrations of melanin. This is a protective mechanism that lessens skin damage due to UV exposure, preventing skin cancer. Most humans have the ability the boost the melanin in their skin to increase their UV protection. This is how tanning works.

But there's a downside to melanin: the human body produces vitamin D through exposure to UV radiation. Vitamin D deficiency causes rickets, a disease marked by soft bones and skeletal deformities, as well as asthma and cardiovascular and cognitive problems.

When humans migrated northwards from Africa their exposure to UV lessened. At some point evolution began to select for lighter skin to counteract the vitamin D deficiencies caused by melanin in excess of what was required for UV protection. Vitamin D is especially critical for women of child-bearing age -- for this reason women typically have lighter skin than men of the same population. Scientists estimate that it takes about 10,000 years for natural selection to adjust the amount of melanin in a human population at a particular latitude, balancing vitamin D production against UV shielding.

Skin color is one of the most easily observed aspects of human evolution. Similar variations in human evolution exist, including the ability to drink milk in adulthood and the adaptation to high altitude that evolved separately in Tibet and the Andes.

With this background we can address the question about skin color in outer space. A human society with a high level of technology, who wear clothing, use sunblock (dark-skinned people are still vulnerable to sunburn and skin cancer) and spend significant time indoors and on spacecraft would tend to develop lighter skin. It would probably take longer than 10,000 years because people with high melanin would simply take vitamin D supplements, instead of letting natural selection kill them off. Finally, over many thousands of years, intermarriage would tend to homogenize skin tone.

Of course, that presumes these humans in outer space don't engineer their own DNA. And considering that they cloned an entire army of soldiers and can create perfectly functioning cyborg hands, they obviously have the wherewithal to select the skin color of their children and change their own skin color on a whim. Which makes the whole argument moot. It's science fiction; all of these things are possible. It's therefore not unreasonable that all members of long-lived homogeneous technological society would all have the same skin color. So Lucas was not technically wrong to use all white actors in the first Star Wars film.

But that misses the underlying point: the Star Wars movies aren't made for people in a galaxy far away -- they're made for us right here on earth. Rightly or wrongly, people look to movies and books not just as mindless entertainment, but as a source of inspiration and self-validation. For whatever reason, lots of people have an easier time empathizing and identifying with people who look like them.

Does it really make any difference whether Jimmy Olsen or Captain America are black, or Spider-man is Hispanic, or Thor is a woman? What matters is not their ethnic background, but the events that shaped their lives and how they deal with their own shortcomings and the challenges life throws at them.

But the fact is, life in America throws a lot more challenges at women, blacks and Hispanics than it does at white men. And your ethnicity affects how other people treat and react to you.

Rich white men love to say that race shouldn't matter, that blacks and Hispanics and women and gays shouldn't get special treatment. So let's take them at their word: if race shouldn't matter, then why not cast a black man as the Human Torch, or Idris Elba as the next James Bond? If Bond can be a Scot or an Englishman or an Australian, why not a Sierra Leonean?

Australia Enjoys Another Peaceful Day Under Oppressive Gun Control Regime

Local cinema attendant, Christina Upton can’t believe it has been a whole 19 years and 7 months since a heavily armed white Australian male decided to shoot at a crowd of unsuspecting Australian civilians for no reason. 

Fantastic piece.

End It Now

End The Gun Epidemic in America



What a fantastic call to action. The New York Times editorial board is sounding a lot like yours truly:)

Held Hostage

God Isn't Fixing This

#emboldeningterrorists

Conservatives are always big on showing force to your enemies, right? Yet they want to take no action when it comes to gun violence in our own country, even if it is the "radical Islam" that they foam at the mouth about so often. Man, the terrorists must look at us and wonder, "How many of them can we slaughter before they can be arsed to do anything?"

I never thought I'd say the day when the Right was so fucking pussy on a national threat to security. They must really love those guns!!!

Why?

The shooters in San Bernadino have been identified. They are Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a husband and wife who left their 6 month old baby with grandmother before killing 14 people and wounded 17 more. Farook worked at the Inland Regional Center and was attending a holiday party there before leaving briefly and then returning with his wife. The couple was wearing body armor and had assault rifles, shooting them indiscriminately into the crowd.

At this point, authorities don't know if this was a lone wolf, ISIL type attack or a disgruntled employee. Anything I say at this point would be pure conjecture but I do know that the guns were purchased legally by someone else and then passed on to the couple.

Regardless of any the details that will come out in the future, this is yet another nauseating example of how we need to adopts gun laws similar to Australia. We have now had 355 mass shootings so far this year. We've lost another Iraq War vet in Colorado Springs where it's supposed to be "safe." The 2nd amendment no longer functions in our society.

The dystopia that is predicted by the Gun Cult is already here.

And they are responsible for it.

How Much Longer Are We Going To Have To Endure This?

San Bernardino shooting: At least 14 people killed

The United States in 2015: ZERO Domestic Tranquility.

The Magic Cocktail of Conservatives

The NRA Visit

NRA Visits Colorado Police Evidence Room To Check Up On Rifle Used In Planned Parenthood Shooting

“It’s a little shaken up, but it should be okay—thank God,” said NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, who appeared visibly distressed while kneeling down next to the assault-style rifle and gently placing his hand on the stock. “I’ve just been worried sick since I heard about the incident. It looks like it was dropped pretty hard, and it’s barely got any bullets left, but at least it’s resting safely now. I might just sleep here tonight to keep an eye on it.” LaPierre told reporters that he would do everything he could to help the rifle return home and get back working again soon.

Good Lord, do I love the Onion.

Domestic Terrorism in Colorado Egged on by Republican Presidential Candidates

The shootings in Colorado at Planned Parenthood have been called a "tragedy" by Republicans who deign to acknowledge them. But they're more than that: the attacks on Planned Parenthood -- and the plural is correct -- are domestic terrorism perpetrated by right-wing fanatics.

In the last few decades there have been hundreds of terrorist attacks against abortion clinics:

An FBI Intelligence Assessment at the time found these attacks were "consistent with the actions of lone offenders using tactics of arsons and threats all of which are typical of the pro-life extremist movement." Moreover, the report said it was "likely criminal or suspicious incidents will continue to be directed against reproductive health care providers, their staff and facilities."

Less than two weeks after CBS reported that, another abortion clinic was firebombed in California. It was the fourth arson at a Planned Parenthood location in as many months.

"The toxic rhetoric directed at Planned Parenthood has dangerous consequences," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein in a press release at the time. "It sends a signal that using violence to close clinics and intimidate healthcare professionals and women is 'OK.' It is not."

Since 1977, according to NAF, there have been eight murders, 17 attempted murders, 42 bombings, and 186 arsons against abortion clinics and providers.

We don't know the full details behind the attack on Planned Parenthood, but the killer reportedly told police "no more baby parts" in reference to the shootings.

Republicans who have been blasting Planned Parenthood claim the latest attack in Colorado isn't their fault: the killer is "unbalanced" and you can't blame people who speak out about abortion for the actions of the crazies they incite.

Carly Fiorina has been screaming "FIRE!" in a crowded theater and now three people are dead because she egged on some kook.

But conservatives haven't been exercising "free speech:" they have been perpetuating a lie based on propaganda videos doctored by an anti-abortion hate group. Carly Fiorina has been particularly mendacious, making all sorts of outrageous and outright lies about the videos and Planned Parenthood's activities. She has been screaming "FIRE!" in a crowded theater and now three people are dead because she egged on some kook.

If conservatives were arguing the facts, it would be one thing. But when they spout lies and cite doctored videos as their "proof" they are complicit with a program of propaganda and hatred on the same level as Al Qaeda and ISIS.

Unless people like Trump, Fiorina and Cruz own up to the lies and admit that the videos are fake and that Planned Parenthood has been smeared by a bunch of fanatics, they bear a degree of personal responsibility for the attacks.

Good Words

From recent question on Quora...

I think the most pressing issue facing America is the meltdown of one of our two primary political parties. The Republicans have gone from (to my thinking) distasteful to dangerously deranged. And they're dragging HALF our population with them down the hole. (We wonder how the insanity of the Nazi party could take root in a place as advanced and civilized as Germany in the 1930s, well watching the meltdown of American conservatism gives us a front-row seat.) 

Amen

Put Them Away

Let us be clear. Our Founders did not ratify the Second Amendment so that men like this could obtain military-grade arsenals.

Look at this face. People like this guy and the ideology that allowed him to obtain the weapons that he had are the real threats to our national security. They are far worse than ISIL or any Islamic extremist organization. They continue to pile up bodies with one party in this country vociferously defending them.

It's way past time to stop them. They need to be disarmed and put away for accessories to murder.

Good Thing He Wasn't Black

Great Words

I posted a question on Quora recently that had the distinction of being answered by world famous game designer Ernest W. Adams. His response was amazing.

The people who are claiming that you have no right to live peacefully don't seem to know what "ensure domestic tranquillity" means. It means citizens not killing each other. Of course you have a right to live peacefully; it is explicitly one of the aims of the Constitution. The Second Amendment undermines that aim by empowering people to do violence with high efficiency. 

More importantly, however, it's simply a bad idea and needs to be abolished. Owning firearms not a "natural right" (there's no such thing), it is a privilege we allow to those who are not felons. But the privilege is so consistently, violently, tragically abused by Americans, that it needs to be curtailed. The Finns and the Canadians are far more responsible with their firearms. But I don't trust an American with one.

Considering he has an average of two million views per month with over four thousand followers, his response will get widespread attention. I am most grateful.

Given the advancement in technology coupled with the fact that we manage to kill thirty thousand of our own people every year due to gun violence, we are not domestically tranquil.

Why More Guns Again?

Giving Thanks...

Today, I'd like to thank the 250 or so regular readers of this site. Most of you have been with us from the beginning and we here at Zombie Politics are most grateful.

I receive several emails a week but I thought it most appropriate to share this recent note today from regular reader Ahn Hui (who gave his kind permission to publish).

Mark, I know that over the years you've been slapped around on here for your posts about gun violence. I want to say I, for one, am grateful for what you share and for the questions you pose. We must be the change we wish to see in the world. Those of us with compassionate hearts and insightful minds have to get the culture to turn the corner on gun violence. The only way to do that is to get people talking. Reason will ultimately prevail. 

When we can get the American people to understand that firearms, particularily handguns and automatic weapons are the security blankets of cowards, not the ultimate trump card they think, then we can make some progress towards a more peaceful and worthwhile future for us all.

Amen.

How Alike They Are

The Sick Jihad

The New York Daily News has officially declared war on the Gun Cult.

A "sick jihad" indeed. Why do they want to make it easier for ISIL guys to get guns?