Racists disturb me when they shift from “dogwhistle” social media posts to saying things out loud.
This isn’t a dogwhistle
There’s a lot of online nonsense currently on social media involving the Louisiana Deserves Better (LDB) organization. LDB coordinates the movement to recall Louisiana Governor Jeff Murray and Attorney General Liz Murrill. Two women stepped up and organized LDB as a means to collect signatures on legal, verifiable petitions. The movement and organization achieved unprecedented levels of support since its inception.
Online isn’t reality
Disagreement and dissension among liberals on social media exist in quantities much greater than real life, IRL, meatspace. While I hesitate to give too much oxygen to a person known online for disruption of progressive causes and organizations, there are times when comment is necessary.
Leila Habib can be best described as a person who regularly disrupts progressive discussions. To make a point, she clipped a scene from Disney’s movie The Jungle Book in a recent social media post. Again, this is social media nonsense, but it speaks volumes about the person posting. That’s because this is absolutely racist.
Why is this racist?
This social media post shows an orangutan, “King Louie.” The jazz musician Louis Prima, from New Orleans, voiced the character. While Disney always rejected the notion that their portrayal of orangutans in the film were racist caricatures, the film received criticism. The studio argued that Prima provided a recognizable voice and that was that. In spite of that defense, Jungle Book is one of five movies the studio later added a “Cultural Warning” to.
In my NOLA History Guy writing and podcasting, I deal with an extensive amount of primary source material. Discerning someone’s meaning when using these sources often presents a challenge. You can almost hear someone in a Disney writers’ room saying, “we’re not using chimps or monkeys for this, orangutans are orange!” Then they hired a Sicilian jazz musician. The relationship between Creole musicians and Sicilians in the city was fraught. This dates back to Nick LaRocca, who argued that the Sicilian musicians owed black musicians nothing with respect to the development of their jazz interpretations.
In short, a Sicilian voicing a character representing a Black person is problematic.
Ignorance?
Is it possible the OP here is ignorant of the background here? Of course. The Jungle Book came out in 1967. A lot has happened in the intervening sixty-odd years. Still, when someone wants to make a point about an organization that is led by two Black women, reaching for a clip of a dancing primate doesn’t leave me with questions. This isn’t subtle. It’s racist.
In a letter dated June 17, 2026 addressed to the President of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Heiner Wilmer, the Dicastery communicated that it is not possible to grant the indult requested on March 30, 2026. An indult is “a special (and often temporary) favor granted to a physical or moral person by the Apostolic See (or the local ordinary) which confers faculties contrary to or beyond the prescriptions of the law.”
The German Bishops had requested “to permit, in exceptional circumstances, a duly commissioned lay member of the faithful to preach in place of the homily during the celebration of the Eucharist.”
tl;dr – a homily at Mass may only be preached by an ordained minister, a priest or a deacon.
Opportunity?
The thing about this particular request from Germany is that it goes above simply having a lay person say something in church. It’s not uncommon for lay Catholics, shoot, even non-Catholics to speak to a congregation. What these bishops wanted was for a non-ordained person to preach about the Gospel.
I’m not sure what the Germans specifically wanted a lay person to talk about.
When I was a kid, I remember a visiting priest came to our parish to preach for Palm Sunday. He invited a pathologist to speak on the wounds and torture described in the Passion of Christ, from a forensic perspective. It was pretty gruesome, as you might imagine. I’m sure this was dismissed as “not preaching,” since it was quite technical. Why do it? Because the Eucharist is when you have the most ears listening to what the Church has to say. If you had this guy come to the men’s club to talk, elementary-school age me wouldn’t have that nightmare stuck with me, some sixty years later.
Women?
That’s no doubt what the Germans thought. Someone wanted to make a point better made by a speaker who’s not ordained. I can think of a very positive example of where this makes sense: have a woman preach.
Now, that’s the rub. A woman can’t be ordained. End of discussion? The Dicastery seems to think so, and that’s a shame. That’s why this could have been an opportunity. Even if they start with non-ordained men, it would open doors in a world where the number of men pursuing a vocation as deacon or priest is shrinking.
Clergy?
When I speak to groups about my book, Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, I often show a photo of a Mass in the Conlin Gym at Brother Martin High School where all the alumni of the school who now teach there came up after Mass and posed in front of the altar. While I don’t argue with the Institute on who is or isn’t a Brother, those men are, for all intents and purposes, the current generation of Brothers. They may not profess vows, but they have the vibe. They embody the Educational Charism of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.
The Church at large needs to find new ways to embrace the laity. While folks (rightfully) love Papa Leone for his positions on war and Trump, this decision is a reminder that Catholics need to keep pushing to improve how they express their faith.
When it comes to being a queer ally, folks talk the talk.
Don’t say you’re a Queer Ally
Happy Pride Month! Every year, folks add flag emojis to their social media posts, in the hopes that their local queer community will see that they’re a “Queer Ally.” On a macro level, corporations used to sponsor Pride events, also hoping that LGBTQ+ customers don’t remain loyal to their brands. After all, everyone knows queer folks choose soft drinks, beer, potato chips, and other consumables because the corp “rainbows” their logo for June, right?
*sigh*
Even the banks and investment firms pretend to give a damn about queers in June. Well, at least they used to. Now, any corp with business before the Trump administration drops people Republicans hate like a rock. They don’t even do a wink-wink-nudge-nudge at this point.
Let’s not forget Transgender people. While it’s possible to simply ignore gays, it’s absolutely necessary to go the extra yard in establishing that you’re not a “transgender defender.” It’s part of the Republican playbook to label anyone supporting basic rights and health services for trans people as downright immoral, un-Christian, and un-American. It works, particularly when they remind parents of teen girls how their daughters won’t get a fair shake in high school athletics.
Talking the talk isn’t enough
Starting today and through June 30th, we’ll see realtors, mortgage brokers, financial planners, investment counselors and bank loan officers declare that they’re a “Queer Ally.” That designation, along with those emojis and “love is love” comments are code. Those professionals are often self-employed and/or rely heavily on commissions as part of their income. They really have no intention of reaching out to queers. OK, maybe if your gay cousin is selling their house, they would list it, but showing a property to a lesbian couple isn’t likely going to happen. They know queers aren’t going to finance a real estate purchase with them. There are usually other bank officers who specialize in lending to queer-owned businesses.
So, the Queer Ally does bare minimum. If confronted by that friend from high school or sorority sister who is the Republican Ward Captain, they’ll say, “oh, I have to do that so they don’t come for me.”
Walking the walk
It’s easy to identify the true Queer Ally. For openers, they walk the walk. When hateful people come for queers, they stand up. They don’t hide behind a tiny Pride flag. They’re willing to reject efforts to ban books written by queer authors about queer families and kids. They object when their children come home from school and tell them the horrible things conservative teachers say. They know that their daughter’s soccer team lost because they had a bad day, not because of the one trans girl who lives on the other side of the state.
Speak your support
I know I’m going to get a lot of “not-me!” comments when this post drops here and on The Places. I don’t argue with those folks, but I do remember them. As the old saying goes, “hit dogs holler.”
NOTE: Our Pride Fleur-De-Lis flag is from Bourbon Pride, a shop on Bourbon and Dumaine Streets, next to Cafe’ Lafittte and across from Clover Grill.
We learned a lot from Mr. Adams in Crusader NJROTC 1973. Cross-posted to NOLA History Guy.
Crusader NJROTC 1973
Photo of the current Brother Martin Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) Color Guard. While these cadets are a much-newer vintage than when I was a cadet, the basics of what these guys learn and the activities they participate in are both similar and important.
There’s a lot of things in the news concerning Naval Aviation and The Naval Special Warfare Development Group( abbreviated as DEVGRU) in recent days that bring me back to my first semester of Naval Orientation at Brother Martin. Chief Warrant Officer 4 (CWO-4) Leroy Adams taught NJROTC I in 1973-74. I’m not sure what Mr. Adams (remind me to tell you the story of how Brother More, SC, always called him “Chief” sometime) did in the Navy before he retired. I’ll have to look that up, because he was great teacher. I want to share two things from Mr. Adams class that stuck with me.
NJROTC I
The first is outlining. I learned outlining the hard way, having received an F on a book report in English 8A (thanks, Brother Buddy). That pretty much kicked my ass and made me realize that a lot of my elementary school foundation wasn’t all that great. Then came baptism-by-fire with respect to outlining, when I competed in Extemporaneous Speaking in 9th grade. Mr. Adams approached teaching Naval Orientation the same way instructors approached training sailors in the fleet. He started with basics. While honor students chafed at having to read the textbook and outline what we read, the exercise worked. That training provided me with a solid foundation as I became an Education major at UNO.
That leads to the second thing I took away from NJROTC I. The course text, an incredibly thick Navy-issue book, included the Uniform Code of Military Justice in its entirety. A lot of us Debate Team kids aspired to be lawyers. It’s why many of us enjoyed cross-examination debate. So, when the day’s lecture wasn’t interesting, I would flip through to the UCMJ and read various sections. Those regs made it clear that joining the military wasn’t a choice that should be made lightly.
UCMJ, JAG, and Good Men
Fast-forward to adulthood. I didn’t join up (the Navy disqualified me because of my poor eyesight), but many of my friends and classmates did. All of them served honorably and did not run afoul of the UCMJ. Dramas like “A Few Good Men” and television shows like “JAG” always took me back to that reading I did in 10th grade. It’s why now, I find the present administrations rhetoric with respect to Captain Mark Kelly, USN (RET) so abhorrent. Now-Senator Kelly works hard to protect men and women in uniform by reminding them of their obligation to refuse unlawful orders. The UCMJ makes it clear that Senator Kelly is correct. Our NJROTC instructors would have agreed.
The ownership group of 1031 Canal Street was never held accountable.
Hard Rock Hotel, 21-October-2019. Infrogmation photo.
1031 Canal – The Hard Rock Hotel Disaster.
While city tut-tuts over the indictment of Mayor Latoya Cantrell, 1031 Canal Street remains an empty lot.
In October, 2019, construction continued at the corner of Canal and N. Rampart Streets. Developers demolished an old Woolworth’s store. They planned a hotel development. Tragedy struck on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The structure collapsed. Three workers died. Dozens received injuries. Almost six years later, no one from the ownership group has been held accountable for these deaths.
Media coverage
Imagine if WVUE-TV (FOX 8)’s Lee Zurik pursued 1031 Canal Partners with the passion he’s pursued Mayor Cantrell.Zurik would report on the progress he and his team made as they reviewed hundreds of hours of property surveillance video from the Upper Pontalba building at Jackson Square. He searched for months for anything incriminating on the mayor. Arguably his team’s work bears fruit in the federal case against Cantrell.
Then there’s WDSU-TV’s Aubrey Killion. Killion pursued defocked Catholic priest and child abuser Lawrence Hecker, even though he was in his 90s and dying. Hecker was eventually charged with child sexual assault, based on his own admissions in various interviews. Most of Killion’s coverage of the case focused on whether or not Hecker was competent to stand trial.
So, they chase the Black woman mayor’s $70,000. They hounded the senile 94-year-old priest near death. Additionally, newsrooms considered both cases more important/significant than the deaths of three construction workers. How much time did these lead investigative reporters spend on 1031 Canal? Not much. They clearly had bigger fish to fry.
This weekend local denizens of social media dance with joy at the mayor’s predicament. This morning’s Times-Picayune calls Cantrell the “lamest of lame ducks” as her term nears its end.
Local businessmen get to hide behind the relative anonymity of their corporate presence. It wouldn’t take much for the press and the Department of Justice to put the same effort in bringing those dead men some justice as they do coming for the mayor.
It’s been almost four years since I got new glasses. I’m nearsighted, got my first pair of new specs at The Vision Plaza in Lakeside Shopping Center. Glasses improved my ability to see the blackboard! Da Mall lacked a/c back then, open-air. Each store opened to the outside. So, glasses are important to me.
Contacts and vanity
I begged for contacts in high school, as soon as the doctor declared my eyes hit “adult” level as in not growing anymore. It was wonderful to go around sans frames! Of course, this was 1975ish, so they were the “hard” contacts. Extended wear meant extended misery. Later in life, I got more modern contacts, the thirty-day type. I still defaulted to the glasses for the most part. With all the travel I’ve done, dealing with contacts was just another hassle. I did go back to contacts more during the pandemic, however, because the glasses and a mask created a pain-in-the-ass combination.
Sunglasses
The thing about contacts from the get-go was the freedom to wear sunglasses. I’ve always been a cheap sunglasses person, mainly because I’m absent-minded. Leaving a pair of Ray-Bans in a hotel room or rental car wasn’t healthy from a financial point of view. Gimme those cheap sunglasses from the Iris parade or wherever.
Eyedrops
This glaucoma thing. Contacts are problematic! The doc has me on four different drops, twice a day. Contacts out, drops, contacts back in? Way too much bother. Thing was, the glasses were dated and my eyes needed stronger lenses. I wore the contacts for the tour guide class, with readers, of course. I broke down and bought a pair of readers with decent frames, as opposed to the 3/$20 kind you get at the drugstore.
That’s why I’m glad for updated specs. I went with a two-for-one deal, so I can indulge a bit of personalization and vanity!
We laid my 2011 Toyota RAV4 to rest yesterday. Taking its place is a 2025 Honda CR-V hybrid. It’s a wonderful car, and it’s red! While there was nothing wrong with the RAV4 and RAV4 hybrid, there were a few reasons we opted for the Honda.
First, my CPA kiddo bought a Civic from Royal Honda (on Veterans in #themetrys) a few years back. When it became clear it was time for us to get a new car, I asked him if he was still happy with the car, and the dealer. Yes to both, he replied. That Civic traveled to Palo Alto, CA, and back. Dr. and Mr. Branley spent the last three years out there, as Dr. Branley did her Pediatrics residency at Stanford Children’s. That part of her career now complete, they’ve come back home. So, their Honda survived There and Back Again.
Second, he and my wife were both happy with Royal Honda. I wasn’t involved in that purchase, but the wife went with him. He was driving her old Saturn, so she had to sign the title over to the dealer for the trade-in. Since my wife is also my CPA, it’s important that she’s happy with the people we do business with. Turns out that the salesperson who took care of the Civic is still with the dealership, now a manager.
Third, now that Mr. Ray Brandt passed, “Ray Brandt Toyota” is now “Toyota of Kenner.” Mr. Ray was a great guy. He spoke years ago to the Crimson and Gold Network at Brother Martin High School. His story was fun to hear, and at the end, he gave us all his mobile number. Fast forward a year or so, when we were in the market for the RAV4, I called him. He said, I’ll have a guy call you back in ten minutes. Salesperson did just that. We bought the car. Royal Honda’s been around a long time, and Royal Oldsmobile was around even longer than that. The dealership is the closest one to the house. It all felt like a good fit.
And finally, I like the car! This CR-V is a bit larger than the old RAV4. I’m told Honda and Toyota pretty much match size and features on these models. While the Honda HR-V was a better fit for me, size-wise, I really wanted the hybrid.
TFG really said “they’re eating the dogs” during the debate.
They’re eating the dogs
OK, this isn’t funny. Well, it shouldn’t be funny. It’s a horrible situation in Springfield, OH. Some woman made up shit about the local Haitian community there and how they stole pets to eat them. Haitians get a bum rap from whyte America for a couple of reasons. First, they’re black. Black refugee communities are incredible fodder for racists. Christianists look down on Haitians because they believe everyone from the island practices Voudon and are satanic, demonic, etc. Ask your average whyte person why Haiti is so messed up, they’ll tell you it’s demonic. So, once you’ve established demonic, animal sacrifice isn’t a stretch. Eating the sacrifice, just another step.
Non-whyte people eating animals generally regarded as household pets is a well-established trope in whyte America. When the Carter administration re-settled Vietnamese refugees along the Gulf Coast, the jokes abounded. Why were there no dogs and cats on the streets in New Orleans East? They were in the kitchens.
Weird Al
Then there was “Cat in the Kettle,” by Weird Al. Yankovic parodied Harry Chapin’s lovely father-son song, “Cat’s in the Cradle” by joking how Chinese restaurants served cat. It was kinda gross, but, hey, a lot of people laughed (including me). Folks accepted the song as parody, naturally. Nobody stormed the local Chinese takeaway, demanding they stop turning Mittens into Kung-Pao.
Still, Yankovic capitalized on whyte prejudice, just like all the Vietnamese jokes. It took decades for Vietnamese cuisine to go mainstream. So many jokes about dog and cat, those folks opened “Chinese” restaurants. Their wonderful food stayed in the closet until food critics sang its praises. Now, in New Orleans, there are more pho places than Chinese. That should have happened a decade earlier.
Weaponization
Republicans weaponized prejudice against Haitians. Vance parlayed a small-town lie into a national talking point. What his handlers forgot is that the guy at the top of the ticket is Ron Burgundy. Drumpf will read anything on the teleprompter. He delivered during the debate. The terrible right are beside themselves as they work to clean up the mess on Aisle Drumpf.
While most folks that laughs/laughed at ethnic jokes weaponize them, we all contributed to the culture that enables the evil.
A. Baldwin Wood (left), inventor of the wood-screw pump (photo 1)
Drainage and Racism
As we travel once again into the realm of drainage solutions butthurtia, let’s discuss why whyte people get so indignant and angry whenever it rains.
Meet A. Baldwin Wood, inventor of the wood-screw pump. His invention facilitated the drainage of the city for decades. Those pumps were built in the 1910s and 1920s. They were expected to last for fifty-ish years. So, what happened fifty years later?
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 happened. Whyte people ran from Orleans Parish to the suburbs. The remaining ones pulled their kids out of public schools in the city, enrolling them in Catholic schools. Those schools were able to continue de jure segregation, protected by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Since they were paying tuition, they didn’t want to pay property tax. That shifted the burden of paying for city services to businesses. Those folks had the money to donate to political campaigns, making sure their property taxes didn’t go up.
“I’m not paying more taxes to give to a black mayor who will misspend it and steal it.”
They said that when Dutch took office in 1978.
They said that when Sidney took office in 1986.
They said that when Marc took office in 1994.
They said that when Ray took office in 2002.
When Mitch took office in 2010, whyte people blamed his daddy for encouraging black people to vote in his first mayoral election in 1971.
All the while, businesses did what they always do, shift the burdens to the residents. Whyte people in the suburbs sat, waiting for the city to tank. Their dream was to have the city fall apart under majority black governance, then step in with regional control. David Vitter led this movement in 2004 with the Recovery School District. By then, Orleans Parish Public Schools were in such a state that the Legislature mustered the votes to take over. The plan was to transition the black-managed schools to charters. (Hurricane Katrina accelerated this like nobody expected.)
The pumps today
Melpomene Pumping Station, named for Baldwin Wood (photo 2)
Back to drainage. Those pumps from the 1920s were in need of replacement by the 1970s. Suburban whyte people missed the boat on where the city anchors the suburbs, not the other way around. As the revenue base in Orleans Parish eroded, the suburban parishes refused to help. They wanted black folks to give control back to them. Regional solutions weren’t going to happen–shit, Jefferson Parish wouldn’t even join the Regional Transit Authority, lest a robust bus system bring more black people near their homes. Republicans in the suburbs wouldn’t pony up to fix the city’s drainage. Federal solutions under Republican presidents weren’t likely, either.
Now, it’s 2023. Louis Armstrong was a twelve-year-old boy selling newspapers on Canal Street when Baldwin Wood’s pumps were installed. They’re still in operation (sort of). Saying you won’t give money to Cantrell because she’s corrupt (translation: she’s Black) is silly. She didn’t create the problem, and wouldn’t have the funds to fix it even if she didn’t travel to Europe and the Emirates.
Reddit downvotes won’t drain the water. Working in the suburbs to affect change in the attitudes of elected officials will.
(h/t to James Karst for the factoid about Pops)
I found this meme on Da Twittah. So, I shared it on Zuckerbook. I figured it would give folks a chuckle. That plan sort of backfired. Many people who follow me saw a gun here.
It’s not a gun. It’s a camera, on a tripod. A lot of photographers take a rig like this and throw it over their shoulder to move from, say, one room or building to another. Moving the camera while assembled speeds up their work day. You don’t have to break down the equipment, pack it, move, then re-assemble.
We see what we want to see
If it looks like a gun, it must be one, right? Think again. How many times have we read about someone getting shot for holding a toy, or even a mobile device. The cop explains, they thought they saw a gun. They reacted as if their lives were in danger.
Guess what liberals? You just did the same thing here. Your brain processed this image as a weapon. You might even have the same reaction as the cop.
Words are important
Some folks stopped looking at this image when they read the caption. It says, “Give me ONE reason why any civilian needs access to something like this.”
How about because they’re taking pictures of their kid’s soccer game? They’re a bird- or (like me) a train-watcher. It’s a feckin camera.
But you didn’t pause to consider that. Your mind said “gun.” The caption implies “gun.” You don’t like guns. You think people should have guns.
When it comes to guns, you’re not wrong. Thing is, this isn’t a gun. You need to work on your critical thinking.
But…but…but
Then there are the double-downers. One person on Instagram commented on this. I suggested they look again. Their reply was that people shouldn’t set up a camera so it looks like a gun. Doubling down on an error is rarely a good idea. When your double-down is particularly stupid, well, that’s when I mute/delete/block.
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