So I was sitting almost cage side at the most recent Jackson’s MMA Series card and my wife was upset I was using Pancake Landing’s Twitter account (aka her personal account) at the same time she was. She said something like “This is mine, this is where my babies come from!” So, I had no choice but to create my own twitter account.

Of course the first thing I would do after live tweeting a MMA event was to look for someone to argue with. Crazy, illogical, bigoted comments or articles really piss me off, but for some reason, I still keep reading them.  Maybe it’s to make myself feel better about my views, or perhaps it is a kind of mental exercise to make sure I can use reason to deconstruct the most obscene points of view.

One of the quickest ways to find someone crazy on twitter is to just search for the word “Moochell.” No, that’s not a typo but rather one of the most favorite derogatory names for First Lady Michelle Obama that the extreme right has. It is clearly a result of racist and/or misogynist feelings. Just to clear this out of the way for readers, the First Lady is not fat, mean, or full of hate for America. If you don’t like her and/or her husband’s policies, then attack the policies. Don’t attack the person, and definitely don’t attack their wife. Also, the hypocrisy arguments that are levied against her for supporting healthy lifestyles for America’s youth while she may from time to time have a nice or fancy meal is the lamest excuse that has ever been used to justify anything so bigoted.

Mychal Massie is a person who sees himself as an important member of the Tea Party Movement but fails to live up to anything aside from the most negative stereotypes surrounding it.  The only thing he seems to be known for is having a debate with Al Sharpton, correction: a chair that Al Sharpton was invited to sit in and saying bad things about the President and his wife.

By searching “Moochell,” I came across one of his tweets where he used that disparaging term for the First Lady and also called her a bovine. I responded. What follows is the horrible conversation that I futilely tried to keep civil.

Me: I wonder how the women in your life feel about you calling the First Lady a cow for no logical reason.

Massie: actually another woman called her bovine I called her liar/dishonest who needs to check out weightwatchers b4 she tells me what to eat

Massie: I add that I’m unapologetically critical of cheap tawdry way she dresses n behaves she has the class of a pole dancer. I’ve ladies in my life not harridan hate mongers that are gluttonous swills who spit on traditionalism did i answer ur question

Me: Yes you did thanks. Real Ladies wouldn’t spend time with a misogynist who dehumanizes those who disagree with him politically. You called her “Moochelle” and u must be blind, she is not fat. Even if she was there is an obesity epidemic in this country. Ok Joan Rivers, sorry her fashion sense doesn’t compare to Laura Bush in your opinion. Pole Dancer? How old are you?

Massie: Old enough 2 speak my mind you don’t like it 2 bad I don’t like what they’re doing 2 my country. let her join weightwatchers n mind her business about what others eat. if that’s your perspective so be it – Your disagreeing w/ me doesn’t change my position or reasons 4 same

Me: It is not about me making you liberal, it is about you realizing you are being crude and crass. Can’t you understand that? So should Laura Bush not have told parents to read to their kids more in her attempts to promote literacy? Again she’s not fat.

Massie: My position is clear and I’m not interested in playing what ifs and your not liking it is your prerogative

Me: Laura Bush supported literacy, Michelle Obama supports healthy eating. The only What if is “What if you were not biased”

Massie: Explain why I would care what u think Michelle Obama is harridan race monger who would shove a VW in her mouth if it had catsup on it

Me: You do realize name calling is the lowest form of debate right? I just really feel sorry for you, you are a sad person :-<

Massie: Once again I ask that which u refuse to answer why would I remotely care what you think bho n his wife are Leninist abominations

Me: You can’t see the forest for the trees lol. You care on some level. by responding, you don’t care on another b/c you are pitiful

Massie: She especially is and arrogant hateful harridan who thinks herself above others she’d eat Delaware if it fit in a roll w/ catsup. They are the purest form of all that is antithetical the traditions that made America great he is a liar and she is filth. Was that clear enough 4u – 2 bad if u don’t like it – what I’m saying is still true u sanctimonious urchins are an affront 2 truth

Me: The only way I could make myself seem morally superior to you is with you help. You lower yourself with every word. Sad =(    But you are the one saying arrogant/hateful things. I wonder how many layers of denial must cover your eyes for you not to see.

Massie: Truman said it best when he said “I don’t give them hell I give them the truth n they call it hell” u don’t like it 2 bad. That said I’m becoming bored with you, they are trash and you are a smarmy troll trying to hoist his leg in wrong place.

Me: You quote someone you would call a socialist today based on your record of inane name-calling

Massie: Nope I genuinely enjoy leaving no room 4 doubt w/ people like u – i want it clear that the Obamas are cancer on US fabric

Me: People like me? You mean people who ask you to be civil, logical and respectful to fellow human beings?

Massie: she is anothre imelda marcos and he’s a chavez wannabe n u r about 2b blocked

Me: If the Great Massie blocks ppl for politely asking why he is acting as like a mean old man idk what our world is coming 2.

The controversial Satoshi Kanazawa, most famous for saying black women are ugly… I mean “lower average level of physical attractiveness.” Kanazawa seems to believe that my previous observations are stereotypes and that stereotypes are what scientists call “empirical generalizations.” He claims that “An observation, if true, becomes an empirical generalization until someone objects to it, and then it becomes a stereotype.”  He also claims that saying men are taller than women doesn’t anger anyone and thus is a generalization, but on the other hand, saying women are fatter is a stereotype. The most important part of  Kanazawa’s argument is in a line he wrote saying, “If they are not true, they cannot survive long as stereotype.”

While Kanazawa’s claims do seem to have some logical merit on face value, only a few moments of thought are needed to sweep it away like rubbish. First, stereotypes are not based on real observations, someone we know might say, “Those ______ over there are totally _____,” but we all know this person never goes to where those people are, doesn’t know any of those people and themselves are totally ______.  We also can understand that stereotypes last a long time on large and small scale, despite being proven untrue.

The best explanation of this I have read is a quote found in an essay titled, The Merits of Stereotypes by Sam Vaknin. The quote was from an article from an education journal that reads:

Group generalizations are flexible and permeable to new, countervailing, knowledge – ideas, interpretations, and information that challenge or undermine current beliefs. Stereotypes are rigid and resistant to change even in the face of compelling new evidence.

Second, group generalizations incorporate intragroup heterogeneity while stereotypes foster intragroup homogeneity. Group generalizations embrace diversity – ‘there are many kinds of Jews, tall and short, mean and generous, clever and stupid, black and white, rich and poor’. Stereotypes cast certain individuals as exceptions or deviants – ‘though you are Jewish, you don’t behave as a Jew would, you are different’.

Finally, while generalizations provide mere clues about group culture and behavior – stereotypes purport to proffer immutable rules applicable to all the members of the group. Stereotypes develop easily, rigidify surreptitiously, and operate reflexively, providing simple, comfortable, convenient bases for making personal sense of the world. Because generalizations require greater attention, content flexibility, and nuance in application, they do not provide a stereotype’s security blanket of permanent, inviolate, all-encompassing, perfectly reliable group knowledge.

Based on my experience, this description seems much more plausible than Kanazawa’s and deals with the possible threats to truth telling that may come from so called “political correctness”. Vakin himself goes on to write:

Blacks are good athletes because sports is one of the few egalitarian career paths open to them. Jews, historically excluded from all professions, crowded into science and business and specialized. If gays are indeed more sensitive or caring than the average perhaps it is because they have been repressed and persecuted for so long… There is nothing wrong with stereotypes if they are embedded in reality and promote the understanding of social and historical processes.

This also seems to ring more true than Kanazawa’s thesis and helps shed some light on the other aspect of stereotypes. They don’t just make people upset, they actually hurt them.

Research shows that people unconsciously have biases that make society a worse place to live in. In What We Know Now about Bias and Intergroup Conflict, the Problem of the Century, Susan T. Fiske writes, “Automatic reactions to out group members matter in every day behavior. Awkward social interactions, embarrassing slips of the tongue, unchecked assumptions, Stereotypic judgments, and spontaneous neglect all exemplify the mundane automaticity of bias, which creates a subtly hostile environment for out-group members.” Conscious biases clearly make society worse off as well. To make this point, one needs to only allude to the extreme amount of pain caused by blatant racism, sexism, and bigotry.

Stereotypes also seem to be worse when groups are in more open disagreement or violence.

In conflicts, people tend to develop overly-negative images of the other side. The opponent is expected to be aggressive, self-serving, and deceitful, for example, while people view themselves in completely positive ways. These stereotypes tend to be self-perpetuating. If one side assumes the other side is deceitful and aggressive, they will tend to respond in a similar way. The opponent will then develop a similar image of the first party, and the negative stereotypes will be confirmed. They may be grow worse, as communication is shut down and escalation heightens emotions and tension (University of Colorado).

Lastly, it seems helpful to differentiate between a rigid stereotype and a flexible group generalization, and even when generalizing, it is very important to create context. It is not correct to say, for example, “Gypsies are hated because they steal.”  First, there has to be statistical proof that there is really a higher rate of theft committed by Roma, the proper term, rather than some perception that they do because they are easy targets. Second, if they are found to have statistically higher rates of theft, then it needs to be put in proper historical socioeconomic and economic context. For example, poverty and discrimination have been correlated to crime, and the Roma people suffer from both at higher rates than non-Roma and thus statically have higher rates of theft as a group.

In conclusion, be open to new information, use proper context, and most importantly, don’t be a callous jerk.

Thanks to poorkmart for help with this article.

We wanted to share two amazingly done videos of Nils Widlund, a Swedish kickboxer who took a fight against one of the best in the world on a few weeks notice at DREAM’s 2011 NYE show.

First off, here are some quick facts about Widlund:

Kickboxing Record: 70-16
Style: Sanshou
Country: Sweden
Gym/Camp: Black House Team Nogueira

Widlund is currently a resident of San Diego where he studies full time at UCSD.  From watching these videos and reading some of his blog, Widlund comes across as a really nice guy just living life and having fun. It also appears he is going to start his transition in to MMA. With his already successful kickboxing career and skill, he should be a natural, and training at school with such a BJJ background like Team Nog seems to be the best place to start.

On to the videos after the jump.

The first is Widlund’s DREAM PV and shows Alexander Palma, Muay Thai trainer at Black House Team Nogueira gym, holding pads for him. The second mostly follows Widlund as he hangs around Tokyo doing press work before his big fight. He is does a funny skit and kata in the hotel room with whom I believe is a fellow Sanshou kickboxer Hayes Jemide. The video also has tons of  JMMA people in it including Inoki, Fujii, Aoki, Kawajiri,  Fedor, and Widlund’s opponent Yuta Kubo. The videos were shot and edited by California-based reporter, filmmaker, and mixed martial artist Matt Nixon. Nixon also seems to be in charge of all of Team Nogueira’s video production. You can see more of his videos here.

Here is the actual fight between Kubo and Widlund:

Of course, these new female Legos have curves and busts and love to hang out at the hair salon and cafe in their horrible little town of Heart Lake City.

HEART LAKE CITY?!?!?!?!?!?! It’s like Salt Lake City except with more ponies.

I would write a whole article on the sexist stereotyping, logical fallacies, and self fulfilling marketing ‘research’ that tries to justify this crap, but many people have beautifully sounded the horn already and I will link some of their work here.

All I have to really contribute is how I personally loved building and storytelling with my Lego sets as a child, and I look forward to seeing my children have the same experience, boy or girl.

Juxtapose this horrible new ad:

with a wonderful old ad that Lego needs to remember:

Additional reads:
SPARK
New York Times
New York Daily News

When we first started the world, it was pretty simple due to the fact that we were playing the Alpha version. Since then of course, with recurring Beta updates, things like biomes and cave structures have become much more varied and complex.

We took on our first projects with the help of our friend Xemo. We made a pretty sweet network of forts connected by a wire controlled rail system and mined like crazy into this one mountain. We built a cool fort with automated iron doors and connected everything underground so you never have to put yourself in danger trekking over the surface at night.

It took awhile for the portals to start working on multiplayer servers, so we were forced to continue our epic journey on foot, mainly in search of our first snow/tundra biome. Along the way, we began construction of a canal system by which we would travel to and from our snow castle. It was incredibly time consuming and difficult, and sadly now that the portals actually work, we have absolutely no use for the canal or any of the paths cleared.

Most recently, I took a long journey in to the Nether to build a new portal. I ended up creating a log cabin, a cliff fortress, and discovered my first “abandoned mine” and NPC (no spawned NPCs however) village. The mine was scary, and I actually like the little village, which I’m adding onto.

Check out some screenshots from our adventures after the jump.