Deeky and I have both been contemplating getting tattoos (first for each of us) for, well, forever basically, but neither of us have decided what to get.
So, with his permission, I'm opening a discussion thread for you to tell us what tats you think we should get.
Serious and/or humorous suggestions are all welcome, naturally.
You are also welcome and encouraged to submit custom-made designs for our consideration.
Go!
Discussion Thread: Operation Tell Liss & Deeks What Tattoos to Get
If Cats and Dogs Were People
This video made me laugh SO HARD! Everything about it is perfect. Perfect. The guy playing the Cat is amazing. OMG.
A young man (who appears to be white) in a blue sweater walks through his front door, as if coming home from work. He is greeted by another young man (who appears to be white) in a green t-shirt running toward him and enthusiastically hugging him, telling him it's so good to see him again. "I know I just saw you this morning, but it feels like it's been forever! We gotta celebrate! Whaddaya wanna do? Hey—" He grabs a football. "Let's go throw this around, huh?! Go out and get some fresh air?" The man in the blue sweater says, "Sure, just let me put my stuff down." He peers around the corner at another young man (of whose ethnicity I'm not sure, but he appears to be white, Asian, or Latino) in a red shirt and says, "What's up, Jimmy?" The man in the red shirt, slowly walking past an entryway, suddenly scurries away.[Via Jill, who also get the hat tip for the post title.]
Cut to the man in the green shirt standing and smiling broadly, nodding enthusiastically and giving a thumbs-up. He is labeled "DOG."
Cut to the man in the red shirt standing expressionless, then lunging threateningly like someone angling for a fight. He is labeled "CAT."
Cut to the man in the blue sweater (hereafter "PERSON") sitting on the couch, reading the paper. Dog sits next to Person, staring at him and smiling. Cat comes into frame and walks on top of Dog and Person, crunching the paper under his feet before sitting down on the other side of Person. Dog smiles and rests his head on Person's shoulder. Cat bats annoyingly at the corner of the paper.
Cut to Person standing in the kitchen, cooking at the stove. Dog runs in and says, "Hey, man—whaddaya doing? Are you cooking? Do you need any help? I can help!" Person says, "Nah, I'm good." Then after a beat, "Actually, where's the basil?" Dog says, "Bottom drawer," and when Person bends over to get it, Dog sniffs his butt.
Cut to Person walking into the living room, where Dog and Cat are hanging out and a glass of milk is overturned on the floor. "What is this?!" demands Person. Dog hangs his head and says in a low, regretful voice, "I'm so sorry. I don't even deserve to be here. I'll just go get paper towels and clean it up and leave." He walks out of the room. Person looks at Cat. Cat stares back, and, without averting his gaze, knocks over a glass of milk beside him onto the floor.
Cut to Person lying in bed asleep. Cat comes in and crawls on him, kneading his chest and slapping his face to wake him up. "Wha?" mumbles Person sleepily. "We're out of cereal," says Cat, then leaves.
Cut to Person sitting at the dining room table with a friend. Dog sits beside the friend, nudging the football against him and smiling. "Your friend's weird," says the friend. The camera pans to Cat, peering around a doorway from a distance. "Yeah," agrees Person. "I'll bet he likes you. He doesn't really like anyone." The friend looks at Cat. Cat flips him off then disappears.
Cut to Person in kitchen. Cat is sitting near him on the counter. He rubs his belly and groans. "What's up with you?" asks Person. Cat hops down onto the floor and starts contorting like he's going to vomit. "Jimmy, no!" says person. Jimmy barfs then runs away. Person reaches for a roll of paper towels. Dog comes in. "Hey, don't worry. I got this!" He takes the paper towel and tucks it into his collar like a dinner napkin, licks his lips, and falls to the floor. "That's a good boy!" says Person. The end.
Fatsronauts 101
Fatsronauts 101 is a series in which I address assumptions and stereotypes about fat people that treat us as a monolith and are used to dehumanize and marginalize us. If there is a stereotype you'd like me to address, email me.
[Content Note: Fat bias; passive violence.]
#14: All fat people are unhealthy.
Nope! That is absolutely not true. Wrongity-wrong-wrong. False.
I'm not even going to provide you with examples of fat Olympians, fat marathoners, fat dancers, fat cyclists, fat long-distance swimmers, etc. as is the typical response to the erroneous assertion that all fat people are unhealthy, because those are exceptional people among the entire population (that is, most thin people aren't marathoners, either), and it is actually not exceptional for fat people to be healthy.
And physical prowess is only one measure of "health," which itself is not exclusively about physical ability anyway.
There are fat people who do not have health problems, fat-related or otherwise. There are fat people who do have health problems that are unrelated to their fat. There are fat people who have health problems that are associated with, and in some cases the direct result of, their fat. And there are fat people who are fat as a result of disability, disease, injury, trauma, or some other divergence from "ideal health."
This makes fat people like the rest of the population: Various levels of health, some of which correlates with and/or results from and/or causes a particular body type.
That's it. It's really that simple.
You don't need to take my word for it. There are studies you can find that say the same. And the ones that don't, well, I would caution you to look at the source of their funding, because it's usually someone with a vested interest in the notion that fat axiomatically correlates with a lack of health, e.g. the Diet Industry.
Go read everything you can find by Marilynn Wann and Paul Campos. Go check out the Health at Every Size Blog. Go read the archives—the beautiful, beautiful archives—of Junkfood Science.
The dubious often suggest that fat activists have their own agenda, and I will concede that is true. I have an agenda. My agenda is prioritizing the dignity and safety of fat people over prejudice and profiteering. You are welcome to weigh that (see what I did there?) against the unprofessed agenda of for-profit corporations who seek to exploit prejudice for profit.
I don't fear the comparison.
Anyway. There is another part to the "fat people are unhealthy" discussion that needs to be had, and that is the part where lots of fat people have worse health outcomes not because of inherently worse health, but because of the strong disincentives against seeking healthcare that fat people face.
FYI
So, I suggested to @deekymd that we start the hashtag #replaceawordinabooktitlewithbutt. And so he did. Obviously. So get involved, tweeps!
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 28, 2012
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Favorite Debut Novels. Go!
Please feel welcome to share stories about why your Top Five picks are what they are, though a straight-up list is fine, too. Please refrain from negatively auditing other people's lists, because judgment discourages participation.
Daily Dose of Cute
Tilsy
We are coming up on ten years since we adopted Matilda. I don't remember what day it was exactly, but it was either right before or right after Christmas 2002. She was a kitten, about 13 weeks old.
I used to have pictures of her as a wee thing, but the disk on which they were saved was long ago destroyed by some inexplicable corruption. She was not so fuzzy. We didn't even expect her to be a long-haired cat. Otherwise, she is exactly the same.
She has always been the most regal-looking beast, and all who know her only by photograph expect her to be a classic cat stereotype—queenly, aloof, dignified, stoic. She is anything but. In real life, she is silly, playful, talkative, unfathomably graceless and klutzy.
This photo of her, snapped earlier today as she sat beside me on her chair in my office, captures her perfectly. At first glance, she is the picture of imperious feline comportment—but, upon closer inspection, the tip of her little pink tongue gives her away as the goof that she is.
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by cat whiskers.
Recommended Reading:
Ragen: Obama Administration Actively Encourages Discrimination [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of fat bias and dieting.]
Jessica: CRR Files Motion to Protect Abortion Access in Mississippi after Hospitals Refuse Licenses to Providers
Rana: The Problem of Assuming All Americans Are Middle Class
David: Scarborough to Republicans: Start Attacking Susan Rice for Her 'Temperament'
Echidne: On Trash
Max: The Sun (Never) Sets on the British Empire: The Neocolonialism of Skyfall [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of misogyny, racism, privilege, and violence. It also contains spoilers from the film.]
Trudy: Utterly Exquisite
Nick: Worth Doing
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
People Who REALLY Have Women's Best Interests at Heart Lie to Them. Obviously.
[Content Note: Anti-choice fuckery.]
FMF News: Arizona Launches Website to Discourage Abortion.
Last week the state of Arizona launched "A Woman's Right to Know," a part of the Arizona Department of Health Services website that is designed to discourage women from having an abortion. The website is part of Arizona's recent legislation to restrict access to abortion 20 weeks after a woman's last menstrual period, or 18 weeks into gestation.Emphases mine. [NB: Not only women need access to reproductive healthcare, including good information about their legal rights and options.]
The website provides a misleading list of the potential complications of an abortion procedure... One section of the website addresses risks of childbirth in attempt to provide a different perspective. However, the website lists "death" as a complication of abortion (1 in 11,000 after 21 weeks) and "rarely, death" as a complication of childbirth (1 out of 6,897).
Representative Kimberly Yee (R), who sponsored the legislation, hopes the website will discourage women from seeking an abortion. According to the Arizona Daily Sun, Yee "a staunch foe of all abortions, acknowledged she believes the website will convince some women considering an abortion not to go through with it." Yee proposed the website under the guise of providing women with the information necessary to give "informed consent."
It's breathtakingly mendacious. I am, of course, not surprised in the slightest that anti-choice scoundrels would shamelessly lie to abortion-seeking people under the guise of providing comprehensive information for solid decision-making. But I am nonetheless outraged.
"Informed consent" means something. And it shouldn't even come out of the mouth of a person who endorses this dishonest dogshit.
Let us start making our voices heard. Let us tell the Arizona State Republican Party that we are watching, we are angry, and we expect more.
In The News
Wednesday Makes Me Feel All Gooey Inside:
GQ Magazine has named Mitt Romney the Least Influential Person of 2012. LOL! Whoops!
Top Toy, one of the largest toy chains in Sweden, has published a gender-neutral toy catalogue for the Xmas season.
2(x)ist is opening its first pop-up shop in New York City and is donating all of the store's proceeds to the Red Cross to aid in Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.
Huell Howser is retiring. Sad face.
With fewer police officers on the streets, auto and home burglaries are up 43 percent in Oakland. But hey, your taxes are lower!
It is mathematically impossible for you to win the Powerball Lottery tonight. Sorry!
Almost a quarter of new HIV cases are seen in young people, and more than half of them don't know they're infected.
Stacie Laughton, the first openly transgender state legislator elected in New Hampshire, will give up her office in light of the revelation that she has been convicted of a felony. Dang.
Here is an interview with Steven Eric Wilson of L.A. powerpop band Plasticsoul.
Dear Cardinal Dolan: You Are Still an Asshole
To: Cardinal Timonthy Dolan, Archbishop of New York and President of U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
From: Dr. Aphra Behn, Associate Professor of Historical Ladybusiness at Southern Gothic University
Re: You Are an Asshole
Your Eminence:
I knew you were an asshole of truly gargantuan proportions.
But congratulations. You have managed to astound me--AGAIN--with how large a rectal mitre you truly are.
Your blatantly cynical use of your religion to gain right-wing secular power has really reached a new low with your campaign for the canonization of Dorothy Day.
Ms. Day spent much of her life campaigning for pacifism, social justice, and the plight of the poor. Yet you and your fellow bishops are trying to canonize her as a glibertarian crusader who would bless the denial of women's health care. And you have the obscene audacity to reduce her complex life to a misogynist trope, the whore-turned-Madonna:
Describing for reporters at the bishops’ meeting Day’s life as a young woman, Cardinal Dolan offered a litany of concerns: “Sexual immorality, religious searching, pregnancy out of wedlock and an abortion.” But, he said, after her conversion, she not only flourished, but she also became an icon “for everything right about the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of human life.”You, sir, are a despicable misogynist. If you cannot even respect the wishes of a woman who specifically asked not to be turned into a saint, then can you not at least respect the wishes of her living descendants, who would rather see her life story understood as that of a human being, not as a prefab Female Stereotype Saint, whose private life you can publicly pontificate upon?
But her granddaughter, Martha Hennessy, 57, who volunteers in the East Village at Mary House, a Catholic Worker refuge for the poor that Day founded, said in an interview that she found the bishops’ increasing focus on her grandmother’s abortion uncomfortable.“I wish we would focus on the birth of her child more than on her abortion because that’s what really played a role in her conversion,” said Ms. Hennessy, whose mother, Tamar, was Day’s only child. “It’s hard for me to hear these men talking about my mother and grandmother that way.”
Don't get me wrong. For those who believe in things like recognizing those in a Communion of Saints, I can think of few candidates more worthy of that honor. Dorothy Day is certainly an exemplar of Christian charity and I have nothing but respect for her life's work.
And I have nothing but contempt for the sexist re-writing of her life in order to lend Divine support to your grab for temporal power, a power which you propose to use in order to further the oppression of women, queers, and the poor.
So, contemptuously: Good day, sir.
I said, GOOD DAY.
--Aphra
[Commenting Guidelines: Please take the time to make sure any criticisms are clearly directed at Dolan and the Catholic Church leadership and not at "Catholics," many of whom are themselves critical of the failures of Church leadership.]
Number of the Day
0: The number of women who will lead any of the major House committees in the 113th Congress.
At the top of House committees, it's a man's world.Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle...
Not a single woman will lead any of the major House committees in the 113th Congress.
After a day of meetings closed to the public, the House Republican Steering Committee announced an all-male slate of committee chairs, including 12 returning lawmakers who will head up some of the most important panels in Washington. The chairs for the House Ethics Committee and House Administration Committee have yet to be chosen, so a woman could end up in one of those slots.
House Democrats are likely to have five women as ranking members committees: Rep. Nita Lowey (N.Y.) or Rep. Marcy Kaptur (Ohio) on Appropriations, Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.) on Financial Services, Rep. Louise Slaughter (N.Y.) on Rules, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (Texas) on Science and Rep. Nydia Velazquez (N.Y.) on Small Business.Imagine how different everything would be if the Republicans didn't hold the majority in the House by virtue of gerrymandering.
Fiscal Cliff News Round-Up & Open Thread
Fiscal Cliff background. So, as you may recall, fully one million years ago, the Obama administration + Congressional Democrats struck a terrible budget deal (Budgetfuck 2011) with Congressional Republicans that kicked the can of finding a functional economic deal down the road. To now.
And so the Dems and the GOP are back to arguing about whether tax cuts solve everything, whether we really need a social safety net in this country, and whether indigent children can actually survive on bootstraps. Or whatever.
This is when that whole Whoooooooooooops Obama Is Actually Not an Economic Liberal thing becomes super important. As well as when the Uh-Oh Obama's Negotiations Always Start with Concessions to Conservatives Who Don't Play Fair thing rears its big stupid head.
So far, however, it's looking like the President might actually be paying attention to the idea that the country gave him a fat mandate for Election Day this year, and is making noises about not compromising on entitlement programs. FINGERS CROSSED!
Anyway, here's some of what I've been reading about the Fiscal Cliff this morning. Please feel welcome and encouraged to leave other links and resources in comments.
Reuters—Obama to Meet Executives, Go to Pennsylvania for Fiscal Push: "President Barack Obama will launch a multipronged push this week to garner support for his proposals to solve U.S. fiscal problems, meeting with business executives at the White House and visiting a small business in Pennsylvania to press his case. Obama has sought to go on the offensive since his re-election on November 6 in the fight with Republicans over the 'fiscal cliff' - a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that would go into effect next year if the two sides do not reach a deal to stop it."
Greg Sargent in the WaPo—Reasons to Be Encouraged About Fiscal Cliff's Endgame: "Now this is encouraging. I'm told that representatives of major unions and progressive groups met privately this morning with senior Obama administration officials at the White House — and were pleased with what they heard. Things can always change at a moment's notice. But attendees at this meeting came away convinced — for now — that the White House firmly believes it has the leverage in the fiscal cliff talks, and has no intention of budging on the demand for higher tax rates from the rich or on other core priorities."
Steve Benen at the Maddow Blog—Dems to Avoid 2010 Misstep on Debt Ceiling: "Just as important as what was in the agreement [two years ago] is what was omitted: the White House and congressional Democrats did not include a debt-ceiling increase in the deal, perhaps hoping Republicans wouldn't be so reckless as to hold the nation hostage in 2011. We know how that turned out. Two years later, Congress and the White House are once again having an interesting conversation about taxes, and once again there's the possibility of a deliberate, man-made debt-ceiling crisis on the horizon. Democrats don't intend to make the same mistake twice."
David Dayen at FDL—Durbin Outlines Democratic Approach on Grand Bargain:
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who has almost become the liaison to the left for cuts to federal health care programs in the grand bargain, gave a speech today at the Center for American Progress that included a couple important points:As for the private sector opposition: Pat Garofalo at Think Progress—CEOs Looking to 'Fix the Debt' by Cutting Social Security Sit on Huge Retirement Accounts: "The 71 Fix the Debt CEOs of public companies have average retirement assets of $9.1 million. Of these 71 CEOs, 54 participate in their company's retirement programs and have collective pension assets of $649 million, or more than $12 million per CEO — enough to generate a $65,873 pension check each month for life. In contrast, the average monthly Social Security check for retired workers is $1,237."
• Durbin sequenced the provisions of the deal, saying that Republicans would have to build the framework on taxes, which includes an increase in the top marginal rates, before any Democrat will even begin to talk about social insurance programs. This seems like a hardline stance, but it just mirrors the dominant conversation, which has focused on taxes to the exclusion of practically everything else.
• Though Durbin has sought to bring rank-and-file Democrats along on a grand bargain that would include cuts to those social insurance programs, he set out some red lines. In addition to rejecting the privatization of Medicare or Social Security and the block granting of Medicaid – a common tactic to reject the extreme view to provide space for more modest but still damaging cuts – Durbin took Social Security almost entirely off the table. This matches White House Press Secretary Jay Carney's statements yesterday. It does appear that’s been filed away for the time being.
In addition, Durbin said, regarding spending cuts on anti-poverty social programs, "Let me be clear: Those cuts will not happen." And he sought to line up with the Administration’s viewpoint that any changes to Medicare and Medicaid can happen without cuts to benefits, through payment reforms or provider cuts. This would "strengthen" those programs through the reform, he said. He also wanted to exempt infrastructure spending fully from any cuts.
Discuss.
#lol
[Content Note: Scatological humor.]
So, last night, some genius on Twitter started the hashtag #addwithdiarrheatoamovietitle.
(If you're not on Twitter, what this means is that everyone who participates inserts that phrase and then you can see all of the tweets together in one place, even if you don't follow the individual participants.)
In case it's not obvious, participation meant taking a movie title—say, An Affair to Remember —and then adding "with diarrhea" to it, thus creating the new film An Affair to Remember with Diarrhea.
Now, I have a totally gross sense of humor, a love of wordplay, and a garbage gut that means my entire life should have "with diarrhea" added to it, so I pretty much found this the most hilarious thing ever.
Kenny Blogginz was over, and he was the first one to see it in his Twitter feed. He and Iain and I started reading them aloud to one another, and we were absolutely crying with laughter. And then we started adding our own.
Iain was first in, prompting Jess to tweet:
@shakestweetz Iain isn't on Twitter since April and gets back on to participate in this hashtag. AWESOME SAUCE. @iainmcewan
— Jessica Luther (@scATX) November 28, 2012
LOL! My husband, everyone.
Below, some of my favorite tweets from last night—and, naturally, please feel enthusiastically encouraged to turn this thread into an Add With Diarrhea to a Movie Title masterpiece.
Heyyyyyyy, Breaking Baddies!
Aaron Paul, aka Jesse Pinkman, is really excited about the final season of everybody's favorite show about terrible meth-making monsters, Breaking Bad.
I just finished reading the first episode of the final season of Breaking Bad and words can not express what I just experienced. Holy shit.
— Aaron Paul (@aaronpaul_8) November 27, 2012
I can't waaaaaaaaaaaaaait!!!
[That headline should be sung to the tune of Gangnam Style. Obviously.]
Women at War
[Content Note: Misogyny; war.]
Reuters—ACLU sues over policy barring women from combat:
The American Civil Liberties Union and four servicewomen sued the U.S. Defense Department on Tuesday to end a ban on women in combat, calling the military the last bastion of discrimination by the federal government and saying modern warfare has already put women in the line of fire.Which, in reality, means simply that women are still not officially allowed to serve in infantry or other combat units, but, "in Iraq and Afghanistan, where there are no clear battle lines, women have been pulled into combat in spite of the policy." Women are given all the risk and responsibility of serving in combat, but none of the reward.
The civil rights group argued in a legal complaint filed in federal court in Northern California that the military policy barring women from roles primarily focused on combat solely because of their gender was unconstitutional.
Hundreds of thousands of women veterans returning from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are finding career paths off limits, sparking the challenge to a policy that has been in place officially since 1994 and unofficially for around two centuries.
"Nearly a century after women first earned the right of suffrage, the combat exclusion policy still denies women a core component of full citizenship - serving on equal footing in the military defense of our nation," the suit reads.
The women challenging the Department of Defense policy flew search-and-rescue helicopter missions and patrolled with male Marines in nominally non-combat counter terrorism job roles. Two of the four were wounded. But they found their work unrecognized when it came to promotions.Seems to me the very least we owe women who are willing to risk their lives to protect their country is equal standing within it.
"In America today it's hard to conceive that there are still things you are not allowed to do, just because you are a woman," Captain Zoe Bedell, a Marine Corps reserves officer who served two tours in Afghanistan, told a news conference.
Her female marines, tasked with engaging with residents in support of male infantry units, found themselves fighting, too.
"They patrolled every day with the infantry, and sometimes twice a day. They lived every day on the same combat outposts in remote corners of Afghanistan. They wore the same gear and they carried the same rifles, and when the unit was attacked, my marines fought back," she said.
Daily Dose of Cute
Zelda, lying on me last night while I was stretched out on the chaise.
This dog is made of sweetness. When she crawls up in my lap, because she is a 55-pound lapdog, and lays her head on my chest, and looks at me with her big brown eyes that are just endless pools of love, I do the only thing that can possibly convey I love her back in equal measure: I tell her the story of the day we adopted her.
It's not that I think she understands the words I'm saying. I'm quite sure she doesn't. It's just that I can't tell that story—especially not to her, gazing into her sweet face and rubbing the tips of her wee Dorito ears—without pouring into it all my feelings of relief and joy that we found her. And she always knows what I am feeling.
Nobody else was looking at you except me, I tell her. I couldn't believe they could pass you by. Her tail wags and thumps against my leg. Her eyes hold my gaze, and she gives me that grin of hers. I told the Dadsy I didn't think I'd be able to put you back in your cage. I imagine my fondness for her, my fierce protectiveness, my loyalty, moving through my fingertips and into her velvety ears.
They are all the things I see in her face, and I want to give them right back.
I knew you were my dog, I tell her. You are my dog.
People Kill People
[Content Note: Gun violence; death; racism.]
In February of this year, Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in an incident that stank of racism and underscored the obscenity of Florida's gun laws—specifically the "Stand Your Ground" self-defense statute.
Last Friday, in a shooting eerily reminiscent of the murder of Trayvon Martin, Brevard County Floridian Michael David Dunn, a middle-aged white man, killed 17-year-old black teenager Jordan Russell Davis after an "exchange of words" over the volume of music emanating from a car in which Davis was a passenger.
Michael David Dunn, 45, and his girlfriend were in Jacksonville Friday for Dunn's son's wedding when they stopped at a convenience store, Jacksonville sheriff's Lt. Rob Schoonover said.That's a real shame, because I'd love to hear some elaboration on how shooting into a parked vehicle, then driving the fuck away, is an act of self-defense.
Jordan Russell Davis, 17, and several other teenagers were sitting in a sport utility vehicle in the parking lot when Dunn pulled up next to them in a car and asked them to turn down their music, Schoonover said.
Jordan and Dunn exchanged words, and Dunn pulled a gun and shot eight or nine times, striking Jordan twice, Schoonover said. Jordan was sitting in the back seat. No one else was hurt.
Dunn's attorney Monday said her client acted responsibly and in self-defense. She did not elaborate.
There will, of course, be all sorts of explanations and rationalizations for how this is not an incident of violent racism. I don't know all the facts, but I do want to make this observation: There may have been a good reason for Dunn to ask a car full of teenagers to turn down their music. Maybe he needed to make an emergency phone call and the music was so loud that even with rolled-up windows, he couldn't make the call, and there were no other spots in that parking lot to pull into, and nowhere quiet to walk, and everything in that moment depended on quiet in that exact space.
But I doubt it.
What I suspect is that Dunn felt, not necessarily consciously, that his age and his race and his gender gave him the right to tell a bunch of kids, at least one of whom was a young black man, who were there first, to do what he wanted them to do. And he got miffed when they wouldn't, when they failed to acknowledge and defer to his privilege.
I could be wrong about that.
But desperation generally doesn't pull a trigger "eight or nine times." Rage does. Resentment does. Entitlement does.
And it's the same thing that generally drives the fuck away from the scene of killing a teenager who got mouthy about turning down the volume on a car stereo, and then claims self-defense.
[H/T to Jordan Banks.]
