Ay, dios mio. I just turned on the news for a quick minute before I headed out the door, and I found out that a plane was crashed into an IRS building in Texas.
The following is a bit of an excerpt from a letter left behind by the man who flew the plane, Joesph Stack:
In one passage, Stack writes: “That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their ‘freedom’ … and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.”
He also wrote: “Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours?
Toward the end, he wrote, “I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.”
I’m not going to comment on this until I’ve had a chance to sit down and really go through the news more carefully. But until then–I do have to say, I am terribly sorry for any families who have lost a loved one today, and that includes Stacks family.
2:46 pm By la Macha · Music · 3 Comments
18 Feb 2010Well, I wanted to talk to you all about the Olympics and what I’ve enjoyed and disliked the most. But when I tried to get video, I found that NBC has basically made it a Gitmo offense to repost Olympic video anywhere.
So, instead I’m gonna post this video of Celia Cruz singing one of my favorite songs, Caramelo.
And let’s talk about the Olympics and sweet goodness in comments.

Just a quick note of thanks to the folks over at the Cuéntame project. Last night I had a great conversation with them about VivirLatino, media, activism and claro Latinidad.
I’ll let you all know when the video is up.
7:39 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · crime|New York City|race|Violence · 2 Comments
18 Feb 2010Despite crime being at an all-time low in the Big Apple, stop and frisks are at an all time high & guess who gets stopped and frisked the most?
A total of 575,304 people were stopped and questioned in 2009 – an 8% increase over the previous high of 531,159 in 2008, the NYPD said Tuesday…
The NYPD was required under a 2001 law to report data on those stopped, questioned and frisked.Of those stopped in 2009, roughly 57% were frisked, 6% were arrested, and another 6.2% received summonses. Blacks and Latinos were the subject of roughly 87% of the stops in 2009.
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.
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