This week in Douchebag Theory...Bill Maher has reached a brand new level of douchebaggery not seen before on his show, Real Time. Last night, Jorge Ramos was subjected to possibly one of the fiercest panels of jackasses Maher has ever had in one episode: Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Presidential Candidate and presumed human George Pataki and MSNBC's resident rabid attack dog, Chris Matthews. On the topic of Ahmed Mohamed, the 14 year Muslim student who was arrested for bringing a clock to school, Cuban recounted a story of talking on the phone with the boy and telling the panel that he sounded apprehensive when asked to recount the events that led to his arrest, claiming his sister was feeding him answers and instructions. First of all, are we really surprised that a 14 year old boy didn't have a press kit and prepared statements in the event that his racist teachers had him carted off for showing off to his engineering teacher. I, myself, have been a performance poet, but at 14 years old, when speaking to people, I had to be told not to stutter and speak clearly almost constantly. It's not that unreasonable that a child might be uncomfortable talking about his evening in baby booking. Furthermore, Cuban himself stated that the boy showed the thing to three other teachers throughout the day who thought it was completely fine before Miss McFreakout decided to "contain the situation." So, now, suddenly the kid is supposed to have a prepared explanation outside of "it's a clock" for the one teacher who lacks a basic grasp of context clues? Bullshit.
Maher claimed that white privilege doesn't factor into the incident, but the fact that he, a rich white male, was attempting to justify detaining a Muslim child essentially "because ISIS", claming that the onus was on him behave within the parameters of his administrators' suspicions....is precisely white privilege. The bomb squad wasn't called, the police didn't report the situation to Homeland and the school wasn't evacuated, so it's safe to assume that outside of "it looks like something someone put together at home", there was no reason to believe that anyone involved had any serious concerns that Ahmed's project was a credible threat. What Maher and his circle jerk of white privilege didn't seem to understand was that, at the end of the day, the possibility of a bomb threat wasn't the issue being handled. A Muslim child was.
This Week In Keeping Hope Alive....It seems that previous reports that production for Pacific Rim 2: Maelstrom were exaggerated. Guillermo Del Toro is still turning in a budget and a script for the film in a matter of weeks, but he's filming another project in between if the studio gives him the greenlight. So, relax, folks. Hopefully, we'll still be canceling the apocalypse next year.
This Week In Self Promotion....The day has finally arrived. My webcomic, Neverland: The Untold is finally launched as of this past Wednesday. The outpour of support has been overwhelming, humbling and exciting all at the same time. Several hundred views in the first day, 100 likes on the Facebook page....if I didn't know any better, I'd say you people were looking forward to this comic as much as we were looking forward to releasing it. It hasn't even been a week and it's already been an amazing experience. So, if you haven't already checked the website out, please do, leave comments, subscribe to our email updates. We've got a lot of good stuff coming and we're eager to show you what we've been working on.
My comic reviews for Tokyo Ghost and Star Wars are up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing enjoyment. Feel free to like, comment and share at your leisure. You know the drill.
