adidas Shackle Shoes - the Internet stomps on Brand's product launch

I've never worn an adidas product but I have to admit these Shackle Shoes in Inmate Orange are kick-ass. In fact if a pirate edition turns up in a local Chinese night market I will be tempted.  Of course I would prefer my plastic shackles in Canadian Taxpayer Red. ... I'm acutely aware of who my masters are.  I've never worn a prison jumpsuit  but millions of Americans have, and that's the point. adidas was hoping to cash in on the bravado of inmates past and present, and make a bundle.  On June 14th the foot-ware conglomerate began promoting a new shoe, the "JS Roundhouse Mid" on its Facebook page. (I'm not into sneaker semiotics, so I don't get any of that.) The teaser line read "Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?" The product is already manufactured, in China of course,  and was slated for an August 2012 release. Then something interesting happened.  A few shrill agitators (the likes of the felonious Jesse Jackson) mouthed off about the Shackle Shoe, forging spurious links between the gaudy foot ware and the American slave-holding era which ended 147 years ago.  adidas lost its nerve.  Read "Adidas 'shackle' shoes cancelled amid slavery controversy".

So where did the idea spring from?  Credit is given to Jeremy Scott, the Tim Roth lookalike scowling at us in this photo.  Mr. Scott and adidas were planning to cash in on the fact that more millions of U.S. citizens have done time in prison or jail than have served in the military. For a quick take on the staggering numbers read United States incarceration rate on Wikipedia.  A D.O.J. report found that in 2006 over 7.2 million Americans were in prison on probation or on parole... that is 1 out of every 32 U.S. citizens!    If you are a trend watching bunch like they are in the fashion sneaker biz, that is a juicy demographic.  And don't you believe that inmates aren't consumers of trend-ware.    

There are many articles I could point to profiling inmate fashion in the exercise yard, but for a one-minute taste, read "Croc-style shoes proving popular in local jails". It's HERE.  In the past year inmates of just one jail bought 215 pairs, at $15.99, to match their issue jumpsuits.  I'm reminded of the title of a book I read twenty years ago, IF EVERYBODY BOUGHT ONE SHOE.  It is about doing business with the Chinese, and although the book is long out of date, the sentiment applies.  If even a fraction of the American inmate population got the point (the joke?) and bought a pair of Shackle Shoes, adidas and Scott would make out like bandits.

Then there is the super-cheapo variety of shoe. The real thing - prison issue.  Inmates housed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation wear these slip-ons, imported from China and which cost that nearly-broke State  less than a bag of birthday balloons at your local Dollarama.

Since the U.S. Government activated the infamous prison camp for Muslim militants at Guantanamo, Cuba the market has been flooded with an array of new-fangled restraints, masks and gags, some of which are produced in Inmate Orange. The Yanks force their Muslim detainees to wear Inmate Orange to emphasize they are CRIMINALS and not POW's. This photo shows a prisoner sporting felt-bottomed orange slippers and cushioned leg irons with non-pick locks.  

These gals are wearing a similar type of slip-on footware into court. Notice that their legs are also shackled, a rather odious form of restraint which has become a matter of routine in many jurisdictions south of the border and, which will probably become routine in Canada before long. 

And finally, a graphic borrowed from Wikipedia which shows another wretched statistic from 2006.  That year nearly 5% of American Black males were in prison or jail. If you extrapolate these annual figures you come to understand that far, far more American Blacks have been imprisoned by the courts than were ever held in bondage by slave owners.  "Inmate Orange" and shackle shoes are an obvious pairing and I was amused to discover that one author boldly discusses colour politics in her "Orange is the New Black - My Year in a Women's Prison". Check it out HERE  on Amazon.com.

British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) boldly compared to an organized crime organisation

I was about to toss out a month of unread local newspapers when guilt got the better of me. I did a quick traipse through the pile.  It became a profitable five minutes when I found an editorial written by Mischa Popoff, described as a"Freelance political writer".  It was published in the BURNABY NOW on April 13th, 2012 and since 99% of the copies have been recycled by now it deserves to live a little longer on the Internet. It's a gutsy piece.

Popoff describes the demands and tactics of the B.C. teacher's union as "organized crime, plain and simple".  More, he discusses at length the intimidation process which renders taxpayers and parents helpless in the face of teacher power over their children, a chilling process he says is "a quite effective form of totalitarianism".  In case any reader assume that he is just employing hyperbole for effect, he returns to his characterization "Mafia" in the concluding sentence. It's his thesis, and he sticks to it.

Now you have to live in Burnaby to understand what a sea change this guest editorial represents. The Burnaby Now is a union shop and when I arrived in the 1990s  "editorial" was firmly in control of NDP flacks who learned their strategy and tactics while starting out on the organ of the provincial NDP. The NOW in the 90s didn't even pretend to be interested in free speech. The paper had "a mission".  It is quite clear that attitudes have changed. Staff at the NOW actually work for their pay and have little sympathy for the greedy pigs of the BCTF who have become blood ticks sucking on the ass of the helpless BC taxpayer.

What next?  How about starting a discussion on finally getting rid of "Big Box Schools" and an archaic system that was created to provide workers for a ballooning industrial economy?  This is post-industrial Canada and frankly, soon to be post-literate Canada, and we need to transform the school system by investing in electronic delivery of instruction in multiple languages and skill levels. The only obstacle preventing progress in B.C. Education is, as Popoff says, "organized crime".

Hoodie Politics 2 - Trayvon Martin auto portrait is more revealing than over-wrought CNN journalism

AUTO portrait, Trayvon Martin, from Twitter. CNN says Trayvon died with a bag of candy and a can of iced tea in his hands. Trayvon's momma says he was murdered because he was a black kid trespassing in a gated White community. Somebody is dysfunctional in all this. Maybe it was Trayvon? Maybe it's the media?

Damn! I'm starting to think Michael Moore's production company owns shares in CNN. Cable News coverage of the TRAYVON MARTIN STORY plays just like one of Big Mike's precious info-tainments, and today the voices are becoming more shrill. In spite of the evidence being unearthed by harder-working journalists, which effectively tarnish the temporary halo of the Florida youth (and Presidential adoptee) Trayvon Martin, the CNN "Situation Room" continues to carry water for the Democratic Party. This afternoon a CNN meat-puppette (all teeth and hair, and zero integrity) simply scoffed at the idea that lighter Black youth (Trayvon Martin) had enough man in him to sucker punch the older and heavier Hispanic George Zimmerman. (George's mother is Peruvian.) Ms. Media then delivered the demands of the mob... people "want that man arrested!"

" NO LIMIT NIGGA " - Unfortunately for Trayvon's momma, whom you'll soon witness tearing up and clasping hands with OPRAH, her son was not the "All American kid" the media have portrayed him to be. The man who shot Trayvon is not perfect either... which of us is? But George Zimmerman deserves the benefit of the doubt, and thankfully Spike Lee's criminal attempt to get him lynched failed. Trayvon called himself "NO LIMIT NIGGA" and his posturing at school and on Twitter, say much about where his head was. If you wish to read a collection of his Twitter ranting they are archived here - @NO_LIMIT_NIGGA Reading his nasties you soon realize that yes, he was spoiling for confrontation or simply to build "cred". You would not have wanted to encounter Trayvon in the middle of a dark night. All you would register is is tall unknown male in a hoodie, and he isn't whistling Broadway show-tunes!

Trayvon Martin posted to Twitpic a photograph of his sports shoes. He also posted photos of a girl he liked, a tray of food from his school cafeteria (humour perhaps) and one of the football team.

Actually the BLACK PANTHER Party has a $$$Bounty on Mr. Zimmerman, which is why the police have told him to remain in hiding for the time being. Many Black vigilantes are calling for blood and no doubt, this time around, there will be urban rioting associated with the U.S. Presidential election. The American news media is panting for it, and TV News usually has its way. Horrible as it sounds, Hollywood movie Director "Spike" Lee last week went so far as to Twitter (the mistaken) address of George Zimmerman, hoping to trigger a modern day lynching. I deem Lee's cowardly act [read details] an inter-state felony and the uber-mouthy "Spike" should be under arrest. Now THAT would be justice. I would like to see "Spike" served a dose of his own vicious medicine, but that will never happen.

Trayvon Martin's sketch of his own name "Tray", posted to Twitpic Jan. 18, 2012.

For a thorough account of the whole sordid mess you can read the Shooting of Trayvon Martin wiki. It is one of several thousand U.S. crimes which have their own article now on Wikipedia.

Hoodie politics - more tribal symbolism, more Madison Avenue branding

The Presidential Hoodie on display. This woman displays Obama on a protest stick. Nice! The fellow in front of her doesn't even know how to wear his hoodie. It's supposed to cover the face, not the ears. I can still identify him in a lineup.

Trayvon's parents, Ms. Sabrina Fulton and Mr. Tracy Martin plan to lead all the hoodie's they can muster in New York City. American political theatre at its finest.

The Florida boy who posed in a HOODIE. In an era when people photograph themselves on a daily basis, it's not surprising that Trayvon Martin took the photo he will be remembered by. What is culturally significant is that millions of Americans now choose to identify with a garment and are making it symbol of the coming Black on White Presidential Election. I thought hoods went out of fashion with the notorious Ku Klux Klan?! When social equality is just NOT GOOD ENOUGH, revert to totems, costumes and other cheap symbolism. It's all so damned sad and so manipulative. "Let's march, then march some more, and then... let's march again!" For more on the famous garment read HOODIE on Wikipedia.

This is so sickening it beggars belief. Sabrina Fulton has applied for copyright on her dead son's name. "I AM TRAYVON" and "JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON". Is she going to spend the rest of her life feeding off this sad and senseless killing? Is that all she is capable of? Isn't it enough she's helping save a failed Presidency? Isn't that enough history to satisfy an ego?

OBAMA - "If he had a son..." Two killings in Florida

Damn... the trash in the news today is so painful. The media, especially the American broadcast media, is shovelling shit like there is no tomorrow. I couldn't begin to pick the creepiest, slimiest chunk of info-tainment oozing from from my computer this morning... but I guess it is a tossup between "The Hunger Games" becoming the latest box office smash (shades of TWILIGHT vampire dross!!!) or the news that schools in England are now banning elementary school students from declaring each other "best friends". SCHOOLS BAN CHILDREN MAKING BEST FRIENDS Being best-buds is now deemed elitist and marginalizing. Ouch! England is after all the country which invented the perfected dystopian future... BRAVE NEW WORLD and NINETEENEIGHTY-FOUR. The Brits are rapidly achieving double-plus newness, but the Yanks are only just behind them.

Likewise I thought we had already seen the label sewn to the bottom of the bag we know as media-sycophancy ... but this guy Barack Obama can do and say virtually anything he pleases and the media kiss his ass on both cheeks. It's astounding to witness. Worse, the Americans claim to reject the concept of Monarchy and yet the Presidential family has become nothing else but a Royal Family. All monarchs have Praetorian guards... our Queen does, and her successor surely must, because it is inevitable that one day a Muslim party will seize control of Britain's Parliament...

The Americans understand the concept of a dystopian future because THEY are creating one for themselves ... it's a highly militarized future... a shoot first - explain later future, when every killing will have a clearly defined purpose and also be as legal as a Presidential Decree. So the White House, which once made do with a Praetorian guard at Battalion strength, has now been reinforced to Regimental strength. Obama's security detail is now more than capable of defending his excellency from even a rogue U.S. military unit or the deranged pilot of a U.S. military aircraft. Nobody outguns the Presidency. Sad and sick.

Just last week one of Obama's daughters went off on an urban-safari to Mexico City... did the media carp about the White House dispatching a full platoon of Secret Service to provide defensive cover? Not a bit of it. (Nor did they carp with the Obama's recently took a full Battalion of Secret Service as escort on their Hawaiian vacation.) A sickening, Gucci wallet spectacle indeed. To my tired eyes the metaphor was a troop of U.S. cavalry heading out from Fort Apache for a sortie deep into hostile territory.

I always check out Drudge in the morning and the headline today is a direct quote from His Royal Highness Barack the First, the Lion of Chicago... who declared yesterday "If I had a son, he's look like Trayvon." He was talking skin colour... he was talking about good looks, talent and aspiration. But he also knows full well, that is NOT how it is going to play out.

This is politics, not parenting. Obama's staff has urged him to wade into the latest Florida killing of .... (to quote Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine) "a young black male... a young Afro-American...". If you are an American you already know every itty-bitty detail about Trayvon's life, or at least as much as you are ever going to know. So now the White House, in the run-up to the November national election, has embraced the Michael Moore image of the victimized young black male as its poster boy. Bad move slick! Trying to turn this into a race-thing is not something the Democratic Party is capable of handling with finesse and it's guaranteed to deep-six all those Republican cross-over voters who were willing to give a demo-crat a chance. The Demo-thugs are hogging the camera already and it makes butt-ugly politics.

I see something of interest in an outburst yesterday by Geraldo Rivera, who like everyone else, is seeking to explain the sad Trayvon Martin shooting . He pegged Trayvon Martin as a 'posture boy' NOT a political 'poster boy' as the Democrats will spin him. Millions of young people, including Canadian youth, choose to use fashion as a statement - too often the hoodie. Trayvon used a hoodie to frame his baby face, and it worked. He WAS perceived as threatening. Listen to what Geraldo had to say... LEAVE THE HOODIE AT HOME. Bear in mind that Rivera has already been FORCED to disavow his comments, or risk putting his own career in the crosshairs.

Now for a little juxtaposition - another story of a black youth in Florida. This is also from today's news, but it's unlikely you will encounter the tale, because Mr. Obama has NOT embraced Shawn Martin. If you are a Canadian Snowbird you may have read a little of the story of Shawn Tyson, the good looking 16 year old who executed two British tourists, but not before humiliating them them a little before pulling the trigger. Read the original story for yourself HERE. It takes just two minutes.

The Big Bang, Fred Hoyle and Homicidal Maniacs

I have more interests than I can count on my fingers and toes. Read my Blog profile and you will find a sampling of the distractions which take up my time.

Today I encountered a Blog Writer who is a master of the genre. I spell his name out in Bold Face, Italic type - arterial blood coloured letters... ADAM CURTIS He calls his Blog "The Medium and the Message". Its HERE.

"A MILE OR TWO OFF YARMOUTH" is the most recent article he has posted. Enjoy it here.

In the article, an essay really, Curtis pulls together diverse strands of 20th Century culture into a rope with which to hang his ideas on the gallery wall. It's quite an exhibit. He delves into British contributions to astronomy, including how the term "BIG BANG" was popularized by the Brit media. Would you believe that an obscure British movie about a group of people telling each other ghost stories, had a hand in it? Later he deals with the discoveries contributed by the (then) emerging field of Radio Astronomy.

Curtis delves into the life and public campaigns of Fred Hoyle, scientist and popularizer of science, who preceded Carl Sagan on the television screen by two decades. Hoyle believed that pure mathematics is the only true expression of God and that those scientists who clung to the "Big Bang" theory did so because of the influence of the Book of Genesis. The Big Bang was Genesis on a cosmic scale.

The Blog article discusses a great deal more, and has links to very unique video archives, including impossible to find British television. How about a film which "begins with an economist called Bill Phillips who built a giant computing machine run by water to demonstrate how to make an economy expand, yet not run out of control." Why? Because the article reminds us that the public are suckers for pseudo-science and alternating explanations for phenomena which baffle the common folk. When "Nuclear Winter" doesn't work anymore, try "Global Warming".

All popular culture exists to be cannibalized by even more popular culture. DEAD OF NIGHT (Ealing Studio 1945) was a prescient film with dramatic elements which may have inspired Rod Serling's thinking as he prepared TWILIGHT ZONE for production. It certainly impressed a group of astronomers who had been arguing the merits of the Big Bang theory even as Europe tore its guts out, from 1939-1945. The audience experiences a circular composition with no satisfactory explanation of behaviour - the scariest story involves a murderous stage performer who is possessed by the 'mind' of the puppet on his lap. Fred Hoyle, who walked with Britain's most brilliant thinkers, believed that man's brain is insufficient to ever understand and explain how and why the universe exists. Perhaps that is why I find his biography so interesting.

Curtis has much to say about movies and television and our instinctive need to sentimentalize everything. We crave simplistic explanations for everything, and black and white certainties are preferable to the rich potential of experimentation. (For example our Big Box schools and monolithic public education systems don't work, but we refuse to consider alternative models.) Curtis himself has made a study of modern experiments in which mathematical models are applied to real world scenarios. As we know the Holy Grail which all governments and corporations are seeking is a constant rate of expansion with reliable stability. I was primed for the Curtis message this afternoon after having a brief argument about the real estate market in Vancouver. I don't consider myself a "dissenting voice" but clearly there is something dark and very unpredictable going on here and it has nothing to with the "law" of supply and demand. I'm not waiting for the property market to collapse or even hoping for it to collapse, but I have a sense of a market driven by psychological factors which cannot be trusted, and of a price structure which will not endure.

Jump to Curtis' The Medium and the Message and read back through his archived articles. Use the links to videos which he provides. You will be glad you did.

Greedy teachers, the Vancouver Real Estate Bubble, and painful lessons for a young teacher with a family who fled Vancouver in '84

Adrian Raeside, B.C.s wittiest editorial cartoonist, managed to skewer both the grossly overpaid education workers of the BCTF, and the Bazooka Joe chewing real estate promoters who are manipulating the Greater Vancouver market. This Raeside broadside was published Feb. 3, 2012, but you can find much more on Raeside's website and in his many books.

Raeside's witty linkage of two disasters now afflicting B.C. residents - the failing public school system and the dangerous real estate bubble, helped me recall a time when conditions were better or worse, depending on your financial fragility. Freshly graduated from an East Coast university, I first moved to B.C. in 1981. We didn't know a soul in Vancouver and started life in an appalling basement "apartment" in Oak ridge. It came "furnished" with junk store cast off furniture, including dual-hotplate burners instead of stove. Grey unpainted concrete walls... open ceiling with exposed joists, and a single 1 x 3 foot window allowing zero sunlight. It was a great example of middle class retirees sticking-it-to the working poor, just because they could. There was absolutely no chance of qualifying for a loan to buy something decent... I was an account holder at the BMO in South Vancouver. This was their posted mortgage rate, published in the SUN on Sept. 1, 1983. A few days later I started in the Education program at UBC, planning to work in public schools. By the following spring the government was laying off teachers. Nobody in my classes expected to find work after completing the program. In the summer of 1984 I moved to Taiwan and took teaching positions in two colleges in Taipei.

Posted mortgage rate of 13 3/4 per cent (BMO) published in the Vancouver SUN, on September 1, 1983. And people think they have it tough today?

Had I been able to qualify for a mortgage at my BMO branch in 1983, what kind of bargains were available? Here is a photo I retrieved from an online photo archive. It shows a stucco bungalow built in 1962 and offered for sale in mid-1981 by a salesperson from Cathay Pacific Realty of Vancouver. Note the "13% MORTGAGE" sign pasted inside the front window. Here is the listing data: "A BARGAIN: $165,000 1,150 square feet of living space on 46-by-92 foot lot. Three nice br. Only 19 years old. You can't beat the price."

Perhaps not, but the mortgage was a killer, and in 1983-84 I was too young to die. So we left Canada and when we did return, it was for a job in Alberta. It was ten full years before we had saved enough to return to buy on the ruthless property market in B.C. I thought I was insane to buy in 1994 - it was all sky high prices and extremely arrogant sellers. Life experience takes some of the sting out of life's cold reality. You just have to jump in the river of life and start swimming.