Ike Turner died last week from so far, unexplained circumstances. The first thought that popped into my mind was drug overdose, or some illness related to a life of drug over indulgence. Like most people. I don’t really know. Like most people, I only knew Ike through his ex wife’s book and movie and his music.
His music came first for me. When I was a kid listening to radio, I discovered Ike and Tina Turner. Their music was alive. It was electric. It made you want to get up and move, and I did whenever I heard it. And this was before the Proud Mary cover.
Tina’s voice was unmistakably in the front. But Ike was the foundation. That bass line, his deep voice laying down the tempo, keeping everyone on pace, while she soared on high. You felt rather than heard Ike and that was the way it should have been. It was a visceral feeling that evoked movement deep within the listener. Ike worked his rhythmic magic from the inside out.
Historically, he was a legend in the music industry. Ike is credited with recording the very first rock and roll record, before Bill Hailey’s ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK, or anything Elvis did. But being a black man he didn’t get the money or credit due him as a founder of a music genre.
He even discovered Tina. Built his game around her. Gave her, her name. She gives him all credit for that. Yet to most people, he is still only her husband, the man in the background. It’s a shame that all most folks will remember him for is his abuse of Tina.
I’m not justifying what he did to her. If even half of what was said in her book and movie is true then he was an ugly human being. No one should abuse another person, especially their spouse, for any reason.
But it is sad, because he was a talented and very creative person who was a man of his time, but at the same time, ahead of his time musically. He visualized where rhythm and blues could go, by surfing on the back of an electric guitar. His musical distortions ultimately gave birth to Jimi Hendrix, Ernie Isley, Slash, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Pete Townsend, and Sheryl Crow, to name just a few.
As recently as last year, he won a grammy and was nominated again this year. He is already in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
But that is not what people will remember. They will remember that scene in the movie when Tina fought back and they both ended up bloodied. I cheered when she finally fought back. I hollered when she kicked him with her high heels. He was finally getting what he deserved. People will remember that Tina exited that limo a new person while Ike left it a surprised and beaten bully. She has gone on to superstardom, he to a drug fueled oblivion, if the stories are true.
He never recovered from that moment. Judging from his subsequent statements afterward, he never, even understood what happened to him. He thought of himself as the victim and on so many levels he was. A musical genius, and a member of the rock and roll hall of fame who despite the accolades from his peers, spent the last half of his life as a footnote in his ex wife’s bio.
12.18.2007
12.14.2007
Living with a Broken Heart
I suffer from congestive heart failure. I was diagnosed five years ago after becoming concerned about swollen ankles. I thought the swelling was due to my age and the fact that I was standing nearly eight hours a day doing my job. Except for the swelling, I felt fine. But I wasn’t, apparently.
My family doctor checked my chest and said it sounded as if I had a heart murmur and then sent me to a specialist for further testing. The tests showed that my heart was not functioning well. In fact, it was only functioning at 25 percent of its capacity. I had to have a doctor’s permission to leave the hospital and was told not to do anything at all, work, pick up my young nephew, housework, play with, or walk my dogs, anything that might stress my bad situation.
I was given medicine and materials to read up on heart valve replacements. I was given the option of having a pig valve or a plastic valve implanted in my chest once I was stabilized by the new medication. I was inundated with information about the types of medications that I would have to begin now and to take to sustain my life, for the rest of my life.
Being the info junky that I am, I read somewhere that CHF sufferers rarely live five years past diagnosis. So as I write this, I guess I’ve reached a mile stone in this unexpected journey. I’m still alive with no end in sight.
But five years in, I’m still tremendously angry. Once I got over crying and being fearful that my life was soon to end. I got mad, and I’ve pretty much stayed mad.
I have always believed that if you did things right, the universe will be right with you. Another way to say it is “what goes around, comes around.” Karma. I truly believe that karma rules all. I believe that we reap what we sow.
I was an athlete. I watched the food that I ate. I never smoked. I experimented with alcohol, finding out that I really don’t like the taste, so my drinking is of a social nature. Beyond taking aspirin or nsaids for the pain that accompanies athleticism, I never did drugs. I have inhaled though, around my college friends and at a Richie Havens concert once. But that was it.
I went to school, stayed employed from the time I was sixteen. I have been self supporting since I was eighteen. To my mind I should not have been saddled with a chronic probably fatal disease. But it happened despite all of my self identified “goodness” and good living.
Five years in and I still haven’t had the valve replacement. The hole in the wall of my heart has closed up as mysteriously as it opened. My function is nearly 80 percent as I write this. My cardiologist says I’m a textbook recovery. He has no explanation for the reversal, nor why it happened in the first place.
I must take 16 pills per day to control my heart beat, blood pressure, and fluid levels in my body. One of the side effects of the medication is weight gain, so I’m living heavier than I have ever been and that is hard. My joints ache. I have to rest much more often than I used to.
I can exercise now with the restriction of not elevating my heart beat above 150. That means no running, my last exercise of choice. I can walk. I can lift weights, now in the fifth year. I can do yoga and tai chi and I can play golf. Exercise is much more difficult with the extra pounds and the fear that I might hurt myself or worse, die from exertion is sometimes incapacitating.
I have had to face the fact that I was afraid of dying. I have had to admit that I didn’t want to lose the material wealth that I had accumulated. I have had to admit that I wasn’t ready to let go of my family and friends, just yet.
I still deal with these things daily. As I get farther away from diagnosis, it’s been easy to forget that although I’m alive, I have to be vigilant about my health. I have to work daily for my physical existence. I have to get busy living because dying in my case is extremely easy.
My family doctor checked my chest and said it sounded as if I had a heart murmur and then sent me to a specialist for further testing. The tests showed that my heart was not functioning well. In fact, it was only functioning at 25 percent of its capacity. I had to have a doctor’s permission to leave the hospital and was told not to do anything at all, work, pick up my young nephew, housework, play with, or walk my dogs, anything that might stress my bad situation.
I was given medicine and materials to read up on heart valve replacements. I was given the option of having a pig valve or a plastic valve implanted in my chest once I was stabilized by the new medication. I was inundated with information about the types of medications that I would have to begin now and to take to sustain my life, for the rest of my life.
Being the info junky that I am, I read somewhere that CHF sufferers rarely live five years past diagnosis. So as I write this, I guess I’ve reached a mile stone in this unexpected journey. I’m still alive with no end in sight.
But five years in, I’m still tremendously angry. Once I got over crying and being fearful that my life was soon to end. I got mad, and I’ve pretty much stayed mad.
I have always believed that if you did things right, the universe will be right with you. Another way to say it is “what goes around, comes around.” Karma. I truly believe that karma rules all. I believe that we reap what we sow.
I was an athlete. I watched the food that I ate. I never smoked. I experimented with alcohol, finding out that I really don’t like the taste, so my drinking is of a social nature. Beyond taking aspirin or nsaids for the pain that accompanies athleticism, I never did drugs. I have inhaled though, around my college friends and at a Richie Havens concert once. But that was it.
I went to school, stayed employed from the time I was sixteen. I have been self supporting since I was eighteen. To my mind I should not have been saddled with a chronic probably fatal disease. But it happened despite all of my self identified “goodness” and good living.
Five years in and I still haven’t had the valve replacement. The hole in the wall of my heart has closed up as mysteriously as it opened. My function is nearly 80 percent as I write this. My cardiologist says I’m a textbook recovery. He has no explanation for the reversal, nor why it happened in the first place.
I must take 16 pills per day to control my heart beat, blood pressure, and fluid levels in my body. One of the side effects of the medication is weight gain, so I’m living heavier than I have ever been and that is hard. My joints ache. I have to rest much more often than I used to.
I can exercise now with the restriction of not elevating my heart beat above 150. That means no running, my last exercise of choice. I can walk. I can lift weights, now in the fifth year. I can do yoga and tai chi and I can play golf. Exercise is much more difficult with the extra pounds and the fear that I might hurt myself or worse, die from exertion is sometimes incapacitating.
I have had to face the fact that I was afraid of dying. I have had to admit that I didn’t want to lose the material wealth that I had accumulated. I have had to admit that I wasn’t ready to let go of my family and friends, just yet.
I still deal with these things daily. As I get farther away from diagnosis, it’s been easy to forget that although I’m alive, I have to be vigilant about my health. I have to work daily for my physical existence. I have to get busy living because dying in my case is extremely easy.
12.10.2007
God and Guns....Guns and Politics....
I guess I’ve become numb to the killings by people, failed young men, making themselves infamous by killing innocents. So the Sunday news of the attacks on the two religious facilities in Colorado did not bother me too much. I listened dispassionately to the news conference on CNN and then went about my own business.
What did bother me was the fact that one of the gunmen was shot dead in the parking lot of the mega church founded by Ted Haggard by an armed security guard. Armed, plain clothed security guards at a house of worship?
I guess God now needs help in protecting his flock? What happened to trust in the Lord? I don’t remember Jesus or any of his posse carrying side arms.
**********
And then there is Mitt,”don’t hate me because I’m Mormon,” Romney. Last week he gave what was termed a major speech to explain his beliefs to the GOP evangelicals who think Mormonism is a cult. It was supposed to be a JFK flashback to make Mitt more acceptable to the American people, much like Kennedy did to turn the tide on the popular thought at the time about Catholicism.
Rather than a profile in courage, Romney’s turn can only be described as a portrait of pandering. He only used the term Mormon a couple of times. He seemed intent on trying to convince evangelicals that he is as radical and fanatic as they are.
As I’ve said before....I will not vote for a man whose religion silences women, doesn’t consider Blacks equal and has an all white, all male unassailable leadership situation.
Hmmmm...kind of sounds like a description of our government since its formation. Mitt may be comfortable in an all white ,all male situation, but the rest of us need some relief.
*********
O and O.....Obama and Oprah.....woo wee!....the merger of politics, news and entertainment is now complete. I can hear the tonight show theme song playing in the background..(.think Johnny Carson entrance music).
I can’t speak for anyone else....but Oprah doesn’t’ choose the books I read, nor will she choose the candidate I will support for president...
*********
They’ve gone all the way crazy in Britain. Seems there is a movement afoot to make Santa Claus in the malls a physically fit, iron pumping, healthy man, so that kids won’t get the idea that it is good to be fat.....
PEOPLE!.......SANTA CLAUS IS A MYTH. HE IS NOT REAL..HE IS A FAIRY TALE FIGURE....LEAVE THE FAT MAN ALONE! HE RUNS AROUND WITH ELVES AND REINDEER FOR CHRIST’S SAKE!
What’s next...make snow white monogamous? C’mon!
**********
Question.....if all of the states are moving up their primaries in order to be “king maker” in the next election...why not move up the conventions and the election itself ?
As it stands now, we’ve got another year of this silliness and I would just rather vote and get on with it.
Think of all the money and hassle saved if the election were held in February, since all of the primaries have been moved to January..
*********
Vick, Jones and Bonds....no wonder kid sports is so screwed up. Maybe we need to focus on kids getting fit and having fun...playing a game... rather than treating kid sports as the beginning of a big league professional career...
Do we really need ESPN televising little league baseball games or focusing on a non English speaking pitching phenom from the islands who’s too old to play ball in the states?
Sports used to build character, team work and comradery...it wasn’t thought of as a way to get famous and super rich.
It was thought of as a way to get out of the ghetto since so many other avenues were closed...but people, times have changed...other avenues do exist...
Sports isn’t the be all/end all that is portrayed...
*******
Question number two...........do you allow your kids to play with your Christmas lights? Seems there is lead in the cords.....But is it enough to harm a child or is this another over blown non news story....lead in toys is one thing....but Christmas lights.....
In my lifetime.....most adults that I know put the lights on the tree and let the kids put the ornaments on....after all the problem with lights as I see it...is that the lights are electrical posing more danger than lead...common sense should prevail...
What did bother me was the fact that one of the gunmen was shot dead in the parking lot of the mega church founded by Ted Haggard by an armed security guard. Armed, plain clothed security guards at a house of worship?
I guess God now needs help in protecting his flock? What happened to trust in the Lord? I don’t remember Jesus or any of his posse carrying side arms.
**********
And then there is Mitt,”don’t hate me because I’m Mormon,” Romney. Last week he gave what was termed a major speech to explain his beliefs to the GOP evangelicals who think Mormonism is a cult. It was supposed to be a JFK flashback to make Mitt more acceptable to the American people, much like Kennedy did to turn the tide on the popular thought at the time about Catholicism.
Rather than a profile in courage, Romney’s turn can only be described as a portrait of pandering. He only used the term Mormon a couple of times. He seemed intent on trying to convince evangelicals that he is as radical and fanatic as they are.
As I’ve said before....I will not vote for a man whose religion silences women, doesn’t consider Blacks equal and has an all white, all male unassailable leadership situation.
Hmmmm...kind of sounds like a description of our government since its formation. Mitt may be comfortable in an all white ,all male situation, but the rest of us need some relief.
*********
O and O.....Obama and Oprah.....woo wee!....the merger of politics, news and entertainment is now complete. I can hear the tonight show theme song playing in the background..(.think Johnny Carson entrance music).
I can’t speak for anyone else....but Oprah doesn’t’ choose the books I read, nor will she choose the candidate I will support for president...
*********
They’ve gone all the way crazy in Britain. Seems there is a movement afoot to make Santa Claus in the malls a physically fit, iron pumping, healthy man, so that kids won’t get the idea that it is good to be fat.....
PEOPLE!.......SANTA CLAUS IS A MYTH. HE IS NOT REAL..HE IS A FAIRY TALE FIGURE....LEAVE THE FAT MAN ALONE! HE RUNS AROUND WITH ELVES AND REINDEER FOR CHRIST’S SAKE!
What’s next...make snow white monogamous? C’mon!
**********
Question.....if all of the states are moving up their primaries in order to be “king maker” in the next election...why not move up the conventions and the election itself ?
As it stands now, we’ve got another year of this silliness and I would just rather vote and get on with it.
Think of all the money and hassle saved if the election were held in February, since all of the primaries have been moved to January..
*********
Vick, Jones and Bonds....no wonder kid sports is so screwed up. Maybe we need to focus on kids getting fit and having fun...playing a game... rather than treating kid sports as the beginning of a big league professional career...
Do we really need ESPN televising little league baseball games or focusing on a non English speaking pitching phenom from the islands who’s too old to play ball in the states?
Sports used to build character, team work and comradery...it wasn’t thought of as a way to get famous and super rich.
It was thought of as a way to get out of the ghetto since so many other avenues were closed...but people, times have changed...other avenues do exist...
Sports isn’t the be all/end all that is portrayed...
*******
Question number two...........do you allow your kids to play with your Christmas lights? Seems there is lead in the cords.....But is it enough to harm a child or is this another over blown non news story....lead in toys is one thing....but Christmas lights.....
In my lifetime.....most adults that I know put the lights on the tree and let the kids put the ornaments on....after all the problem with lights as I see it...is that the lights are electrical posing more danger than lead...common sense should prevail...
11.26.2007
Madam President
One of the things that women can count on when they start working and playing in typically male arenas is that sooner or later the name calling begins. First come the behind the back snickers. The male to male allusions and presumptions, then, if those don’t work, out come the attacks on character and personality. Truth not necessary.
Sometimes the attacks go to the extreme of becoming physical, all the way to death. No woman is safe when she chooses to labor inside the male dominated arena, no matter what the arena happens to be.
I have long wondered why men feel so intimidated that they need to resort to the relentless take down of the alleged “weaker” sex. Maybe it’s a sexual/dominant thing. I don’t know.
I do know that it is ugly and it hurts when it happens.
The attacks on Hillary Clinton have been mounting for weeks now. To this point, they have been quasi political in nature. But the boys have resorted to ganging up in the debates, probably because she is stronger than they thought, with a better or more appealing agenda than they or their advisors thought possible.
Now comes a darker, more insidious attack from the boys overseas, complete with pictures. A London newspaper has resurrected the old line that Hillary is a lesbian and further, that she is having an affair with her personal assistant, who has been dubbed “hot.” Hillary has never been considered attractive by the boys who trade in these rumors. She has been dogged by this particular rumor since her college days. In fact, it surfaced when she was in the White House and centered around one of her college chums.
The attacks by the boys are tired and typical....a woman who is successful...sleeps her way to the top, meaning she is a whore, or “ho” in today’s parlance....or she is a ball breaking dyke...unattractive and humorless..The boys obviously don’t watch the L word on TV.
Even Condoleeza Rice must endure this crap. One minute she is sleeping with Dubya, the next minute she is a lesbian, apparently owning a house with another woman.
It’s all smoke screen blown up when the boys get scared that they may lose to a girl. It’s an old way of keeping women under control, they think.
The operative word here is “old.” It’s not going to work anymore. I know it’s early, but many everyday people that I’ve talked with and listened to, both male and female are not happy with the attacks on Hillary Clinton. Many say they plan to vote for her because she is the best person to get us out of this mess that the boys have gotten us unto.
But then again, that is what women do....clean up the mess...after the boys are done screwing around.
Maybe the boys need to find a real agenda and do something positive.
You listening, Obama!?
Sometimes the attacks go to the extreme of becoming physical, all the way to death. No woman is safe when she chooses to labor inside the male dominated arena, no matter what the arena happens to be.
I have long wondered why men feel so intimidated that they need to resort to the relentless take down of the alleged “weaker” sex. Maybe it’s a sexual/dominant thing. I don’t know.
I do know that it is ugly and it hurts when it happens.
The attacks on Hillary Clinton have been mounting for weeks now. To this point, they have been quasi political in nature. But the boys have resorted to ganging up in the debates, probably because she is stronger than they thought, with a better or more appealing agenda than they or their advisors thought possible.
Now comes a darker, more insidious attack from the boys overseas, complete with pictures. A London newspaper has resurrected the old line that Hillary is a lesbian and further, that she is having an affair with her personal assistant, who has been dubbed “hot.” Hillary has never been considered attractive by the boys who trade in these rumors. She has been dogged by this particular rumor since her college days. In fact, it surfaced when she was in the White House and centered around one of her college chums.
The attacks by the boys are tired and typical....a woman who is successful...sleeps her way to the top, meaning she is a whore, or “ho” in today’s parlance....or she is a ball breaking dyke...unattractive and humorless..The boys obviously don’t watch the L word on TV.
Even Condoleeza Rice must endure this crap. One minute she is sleeping with Dubya, the next minute she is a lesbian, apparently owning a house with another woman.
It’s all smoke screen blown up when the boys get scared that they may lose to a girl. It’s an old way of keeping women under control, they think.
The operative word here is “old.” It’s not going to work anymore. I know it’s early, but many everyday people that I’ve talked with and listened to, both male and female are not happy with the attacks on Hillary Clinton. Many say they plan to vote for her because she is the best person to get us out of this mess that the boys have gotten us unto.
But then again, that is what women do....clean up the mess...after the boys are done screwing around.
Maybe the boys need to find a real agenda and do something positive.
You listening, Obama!?
11.14.2007
President Michelle?!
So if I understand Michelle Obama correctly, black Americans are not supporting her husband for president because we, as black Americans, have an ongoing inferiority complex and don’t really believe that a black man can win the White House. She went on to say in several exclusive interviews yesterday that black America simply needs to wake up.
Well, I want to know if Mrs. Obama is paying attention to the words coming out of her husband’s mouth? I mean, he’s got the hopeful/optimistic thing going real well, but so far he isn’t saying anything substantive enough to make me vote for him instead of Hillary Clinton. He’s expending massive amounts of energy attacking her as the front runner, as have all the other wannabes.
But so far, he isn’t coming across as anything other than Michelle’s arm candy. He’s cute, but cuteness doesn’t win elections.
Obama may be the fresh breeze we all need, but we need more than a promise floating on this new wind. We need some substance. We need him not to look so shell shocked in these debates. He said last time, he was going to “bring it.” Well, I’m still waiting.
And before you jump all over me for being an Obama hater/Hillary supporter...I do support Hillary as the one I perceive to be the stronger candidate. HOWEVER....I have written two checks to the Obama campaign to keep the brother going. Hillary doesn’t need my money. Barack does and he will get it until he loses the nomination, if that is going to happen.
But I’m not happy with his ideas. He hasn’t said anything that makes me think he can really win or change things. He keeps looking like a deer caught in headlights during these pseudo-debates. I keep watching because I want to see the brother seize the spotlight and run, all the way to the White House.
Heck, I’ve heard more presidential stuff coming out of Michelle’s mouth than I have her husband’s. Since this is the year of the talkative/take charge woman, maybe Michelle should be the candidate. Enough of this stand by your man crap. We’ve got more than enough of that in the White House now. He who shall not be named has two...his wife and Condi. (Anyone seen or heard from her lately?)
Maybe the real revolution that America needs is for women to just simply say “enough is enough” and take over. Women do outnumber men as voters in this country. Maybe that’s the voting block waiting to be unleashed.
So Mrs. Obama, stop alibiing you husband...go ahead...take the leap...declare your candidacy. The women of America are waiting to support you.
Well, I want to know if Mrs. Obama is paying attention to the words coming out of her husband’s mouth? I mean, he’s got the hopeful/optimistic thing going real well, but so far he isn’t saying anything substantive enough to make me vote for him instead of Hillary Clinton. He’s expending massive amounts of energy attacking her as the front runner, as have all the other wannabes.
But so far, he isn’t coming across as anything other than Michelle’s arm candy. He’s cute, but cuteness doesn’t win elections.
Obama may be the fresh breeze we all need, but we need more than a promise floating on this new wind. We need some substance. We need him not to look so shell shocked in these debates. He said last time, he was going to “bring it.” Well, I’m still waiting.
And before you jump all over me for being an Obama hater/Hillary supporter...I do support Hillary as the one I perceive to be the stronger candidate. HOWEVER....I have written two checks to the Obama campaign to keep the brother going. Hillary doesn’t need my money. Barack does and he will get it until he loses the nomination, if that is going to happen.
But I’m not happy with his ideas. He hasn’t said anything that makes me think he can really win or change things. He keeps looking like a deer caught in headlights during these pseudo-debates. I keep watching because I want to see the brother seize the spotlight and run, all the way to the White House.
Heck, I’ve heard more presidential stuff coming out of Michelle’s mouth than I have her husband’s. Since this is the year of the talkative/take charge woman, maybe Michelle should be the candidate. Enough of this stand by your man crap. We’ve got more than enough of that in the White House now. He who shall not be named has two...his wife and Condi. (Anyone seen or heard from her lately?)
Maybe the real revolution that America needs is for women to just simply say “enough is enough” and take over. Women do outnumber men as voters in this country. Maybe that’s the voting block waiting to be unleashed.
So Mrs. Obama, stop alibiing you husband...go ahead...take the leap...declare your candidacy. The women of America are waiting to support you.
11.08.2007
Things that Make You Go Hmmmmmmmm!
Pat endorses Rudy for the GOP nomination....why should anybody be surprised..Pat has always been more about power than religion...Rudy has always been about power and spotlight...It’s just two old guys making a grab for the ultimate brass ring....I think their hypocrisy will undo them, ultimately.
****
Obama says anyone over 50 is too old to seek the presidency and should step aside and let the young ones, meaning “him” do it....Used to be “don’t trust anyone over 30"...Obama was taking aim at Hillary when he said that, yesterday...That line of thinking has worked twice in the past...once for JFK and once WJC....Won’t work for Obama, though...I think women will make the difference in this election....Whoops! Did I just endorse Hillary!?
****
The House has passed legislation barring discrimination against the LGBT community in employment. 35 republicans joined the democrats in passing the bill which says:
.......“The House bill would make it illegal for an employer “to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to the compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment of the individual, because of such individual’s actual or perceived sexual orientation.”..........
The Democrats have been trying to pass this since Bella Abzug proposed it back in 1976. Watch out for Dubya's veto!
****
And from the world of scientists comes yet another study that says overweight people have a lower death rate than normal weight people...Well, I guess so...overweight people tend to eat rather than starve themselves trying to meet some unrealistic Hollywood ideal of beauty..Deprivation of food is just as bad as gluttony...Moderation is always the key..
*****
A sign of end times....a Boston priest has been jailed for stalking...would you believe...talk show host Conan O’BRIEN. Father David Ajemian was arrested November 2nd and remains in jail according to a press release from the Archdiocese of Boston. The errant “father” sometimes signed his many letters to O’Brien as “your stalker priest.” and this after he’d been warned to stay away from the talk show host..
****
The new discrimination.....lot’s of companies in Florida are now telling their employees and potential employees that smoking off the job is banned, too. As one official put it...”if you’re too stupid to know that smoking can kill you...then you don’t need a job..”
On the job...on company grounds...I can understand...what you do in your home..on your time is your business...period..
****
Obama says anyone over 50 is too old to seek the presidency and should step aside and let the young ones, meaning “him” do it....Used to be “don’t trust anyone over 30"...Obama was taking aim at Hillary when he said that, yesterday...That line of thinking has worked twice in the past...once for JFK and once WJC....Won’t work for Obama, though...I think women will make the difference in this election....Whoops! Did I just endorse Hillary!?
****
The House has passed legislation barring discrimination against the LGBT community in employment. 35 republicans joined the democrats in passing the bill which says:
.......“The House bill would make it illegal for an employer “to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to the compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment of the individual, because of such individual’s actual or perceived sexual orientation.”..........
The Democrats have been trying to pass this since Bella Abzug proposed it back in 1976. Watch out for Dubya's veto!
****
And from the world of scientists comes yet another study that says overweight people have a lower death rate than normal weight people...Well, I guess so...overweight people tend to eat rather than starve themselves trying to meet some unrealistic Hollywood ideal of beauty..Deprivation of food is just as bad as gluttony...Moderation is always the key..
*****
A sign of end times....a Boston priest has been jailed for stalking...would you believe...talk show host Conan O’BRIEN. Father David Ajemian was arrested November 2nd and remains in jail according to a press release from the Archdiocese of Boston. The errant “father” sometimes signed his many letters to O’Brien as “your stalker priest.” and this after he’d been warned to stay away from the talk show host..
****
The new discrimination.....lot’s of companies in Florida are now telling their employees and potential employees that smoking off the job is banned, too. As one official put it...”if you’re too stupid to know that smoking can kill you...then you don’t need a job..”
On the job...on company grounds...I can understand...what you do in your home..on your time is your business...period..
11.01.2007
Aw Man! Another Stupid Report!
I guess I should stop reading the news, because I keep opening up stupid stories that depress me. There is a new report out, detailing the links, actual links between eating the wrong kinds of food, which make you fat and cause you to have cancer. This isn’t new. We’ve been bombarded with this information for a very long time.
Skinny, anorexic people who don’t like food in the first place, conduct these studies to torment those of us who do like food. They keep telling us we’re going to die if we don’t stop eating. I wonder if these clowns have ever heard of starvation? Starvation happens when you don’t eat and then you die.
So what do we do? We die from cancer if we eat...We die from starvation if we don’t. Give me a break please!
I like food. I like cooking food and serving food to my friends. I like food to go with my favorite wines. I like the ambience of dinner parties. When I go to a restaurant with my friends, I don’t give a damn if my fettuccini alfredo is drowning in ten tablespoons of butter. I like butter! Actual eating at a restaurant is only secondary to what else is happening around the table.
I’m not talking about going to a sit down at some family restaurant like Golden Corral or KFC where, despite the noise level in these places, no one talks. Those places have simply replaced eating at the table at home because parents don’t have time to cook. No conversation needed. Hell, bringing a book to the table or reading the newspaper was the norm when I was growing up. Once you got past “how was school” there was no talking...just eating so that you could get to the rest of your evening.
What I’m talking about is an enjoyable night out at a good restaurant, with great wine and libation and sparkling conversation between a group of people who like each other. I’m talking about stops for dinner before or after the theater or concert. Food is not the main attraction, it is a sidedish to the evening activities. The conversation really prevents the overeating that all the skinny scientists keep yelling about, because as everyone knows, you shouldn’t talk with your mouth full, it simply isn’t polite.
What these scientists or food-o-phobics want us to do is to take a beautiful menu of suggestions and then ask the chef to make all of our choices taste like cardboard. We sit there and pick at it and finally push it aside.
I mean really, who really likes the taste of all that diet/light/calorie free crap, anyway. This study even warns us about drinking too much wine and beer or spirits.
Well, I want to tell you, if I can’t eat, I am going to drink. I may as well be drunk on my ass if I’m going to starve to death.
Care to join me?
Skinny, anorexic people who don’t like food in the first place, conduct these studies to torment those of us who do like food. They keep telling us we’re going to die if we don’t stop eating. I wonder if these clowns have ever heard of starvation? Starvation happens when you don’t eat and then you die.
So what do we do? We die from cancer if we eat...We die from starvation if we don’t. Give me a break please!
I like food. I like cooking food and serving food to my friends. I like food to go with my favorite wines. I like the ambience of dinner parties. When I go to a restaurant with my friends, I don’t give a damn if my fettuccini alfredo is drowning in ten tablespoons of butter. I like butter! Actual eating at a restaurant is only secondary to what else is happening around the table.
I’m not talking about going to a sit down at some family restaurant like Golden Corral or KFC where, despite the noise level in these places, no one talks. Those places have simply replaced eating at the table at home because parents don’t have time to cook. No conversation needed. Hell, bringing a book to the table or reading the newspaper was the norm when I was growing up. Once you got past “how was school” there was no talking...just eating so that you could get to the rest of your evening.
What I’m talking about is an enjoyable night out at a good restaurant, with great wine and libation and sparkling conversation between a group of people who like each other. I’m talking about stops for dinner before or after the theater or concert. Food is not the main attraction, it is a sidedish to the evening activities. The conversation really prevents the overeating that all the skinny scientists keep yelling about, because as everyone knows, you shouldn’t talk with your mouth full, it simply isn’t polite.
What these scientists or food-o-phobics want us to do is to take a beautiful menu of suggestions and then ask the chef to make all of our choices taste like cardboard. We sit there and pick at it and finally push it aside.
I mean really, who really likes the taste of all that diet/light/calorie free crap, anyway. This study even warns us about drinking too much wine and beer or spirits.
Well, I want to tell you, if I can’t eat, I am going to drink. I may as well be drunk on my ass if I’m going to starve to death.
Care to join me?
10.24.2007
Torture Porn
I learned a new phrase today while scanning through a review of the movie SAW IV, due in theaters tomorrow. I was thinking of going to see it, since I own the previous three versions of this series.
Torture porn, was the reviewer’s way of describing this latest flick and others of the genre. I am wondering when we moved from slasher flicks to torture porn, but then that’s what it means to get old. When I hear a phrase these days it’s probably already out of date rather than cutting edge. Anyway, back to the subject at hand.
The phrase alleges that people who watch these kinds of movies have basically become numb to the violence, blood and guts that permeates these films (are they still films and not videos?!). That it’s a new way to “get off” so to speak, hence the term “porn.”
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......I liked the first SAW..the second was pretty good too...but the third one was forgettable....can’t even remember the plot...and there was a plot in both of the first two....
I think that’s why I didn’t like HOSTEL or any of the Jason movies or Hellraiser movies or even Texas Chainsaw movies. I still need plot to go along with the violence. It can’t be gratuitous violence. I don’t mind gratuitous sex if it’s done artfully and with a point to do something other than get me hot, unless it is porn, of course.
The difference for me is that porn I can watch again and again, until I’m bored. Gratuitous violence and blood and guts is a one time thing. I won’t watch the first time, if I don’t perceive that a story is behind the work. Watching people die violently is not entertaining to me.
I still prefer a story first. What surrounds and tells the story comes second. I prefer “scares” to be psychological or more in my mind. That’s why the scariest scene I have ever witnessed remains Hitchcock’s shower scene in Psycho. I was more disturbed by reading “The Exorcist” then by seeing it. Most books I read twice. I have never been able to read that one a second time.
Yet, I don’t know what it is about the SAW movies. I really do want to see this latest one. I know that it is going to be bathed in blood and torture. I am fascinated by the torture methods for one. The previous ones have all been drawn from real history. I want to see how Jigsaw accomplishes it since he was dead at the end of the last one, too. I guess he’s found another disciple to carry on.
When I think about scary movies a few come to mind and this is after I started facing them. When I was a kid, I would hide my eyes or dive into the back seat at the drive in rather than watch the horror unfold. I would only listen and that was so much worse than watching. My nightmares absolutely killed me. My dad finally told me to make myself watch and then it wouldn’t be so bad. He was right. Once I started watching, the scares went away.
Scary movies for me......Psycho....Revulsion (french)....Halloween....The Fog....Scream (opening scenes with Drew Barrymore).....Jeepers Creepers (opening scene, kids in car)....The Exorcist....Darkness Falls.....Nightmare on Elm Street......Alien.....Friday the 13th (Jason was not the killer).....The rest of the slasher genre are unoriginal or remakes of the ones I just listed.
You know what, after writing this..the SAW movies don’t scare as much as they interest me. Hmmmmmmmmm....maybe it is porn after all. .
Torture porn, was the reviewer’s way of describing this latest flick and others of the genre. I am wondering when we moved from slasher flicks to torture porn, but then that’s what it means to get old. When I hear a phrase these days it’s probably already out of date rather than cutting edge. Anyway, back to the subject at hand.
The phrase alleges that people who watch these kinds of movies have basically become numb to the violence, blood and guts that permeates these films (are they still films and not videos?!). That it’s a new way to “get off” so to speak, hence the term “porn.”
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......I liked the first SAW..the second was pretty good too...but the third one was forgettable....can’t even remember the plot...and there was a plot in both of the first two....
I think that’s why I didn’t like HOSTEL or any of the Jason movies or Hellraiser movies or even Texas Chainsaw movies. I still need plot to go along with the violence. It can’t be gratuitous violence. I don’t mind gratuitous sex if it’s done artfully and with a point to do something other than get me hot, unless it is porn, of course.
The difference for me is that porn I can watch again and again, until I’m bored. Gratuitous violence and blood and guts is a one time thing. I won’t watch the first time, if I don’t perceive that a story is behind the work. Watching people die violently is not entertaining to me.
I still prefer a story first. What surrounds and tells the story comes second. I prefer “scares” to be psychological or more in my mind. That’s why the scariest scene I have ever witnessed remains Hitchcock’s shower scene in Psycho. I was more disturbed by reading “The Exorcist” then by seeing it. Most books I read twice. I have never been able to read that one a second time.
Yet, I don’t know what it is about the SAW movies. I really do want to see this latest one. I know that it is going to be bathed in blood and torture. I am fascinated by the torture methods for one. The previous ones have all been drawn from real history. I want to see how Jigsaw accomplishes it since he was dead at the end of the last one, too. I guess he’s found another disciple to carry on.
When I think about scary movies a few come to mind and this is after I started facing them. When I was a kid, I would hide my eyes or dive into the back seat at the drive in rather than watch the horror unfold. I would only listen and that was so much worse than watching. My nightmares absolutely killed me. My dad finally told me to make myself watch and then it wouldn’t be so bad. He was right. Once I started watching, the scares went away.
Scary movies for me......Psycho....Revulsion (french)....Halloween....The Fog....Scream (opening scenes with Drew Barrymore).....Jeepers Creepers (opening scene, kids in car)....The Exorcist....Darkness Falls.....Nightmare on Elm Street......Alien.....Friday the 13th (Jason was not the killer).....The rest of the slasher genre are unoriginal or remakes of the ones I just listed.
You know what, after writing this..the SAW movies don’t scare as much as they interest me. Hmmmmmmmmm....maybe it is porn after all. .
10.18.2007
Chicken Little Speaks
“THE SKY IS FALLING, THE SKY IS FALLING...LOOK OUT! BETTER DUCK, QUICK!”
Did you flinch?
Me neither. Dubya has taken his fearmongering to a whole new level. Now he’s uttering the BIGGGGGG “W” word.....WAR....as in World War III..
He says the world has to disarm Iran if we want to avoid WWIII. Anyone who has been listening with a tin ear for the past year and a half knows that the neocons can’t wait to drop a bomb on Iran. If we weren’t already in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Cheney-Bush cabal would probably already have troops on the ground playing find the ayatollah.
I agree that Iran represents a threat. But I don’t agree that military action is the answer. I’m still waiting for Condi to grow some cojones and do the job she is paid to do...be a diplomat and stop this craziness. Enough of this “stand by your man” crap. That’s Laura’s job. She married him.
Dubya’s ratings have dropped to a new low. He’s lower than tricky dick Nixon and that’s low. Dubya just doesn’t get it. He thinks he’s still relevant and is telling anyone who will listen.
The difference is Nixon was smart enough to understand his self inflicted predicament. Nixon was a lot of things..a crook, a racist, a misogynist, an egotist...but he was not stupid...Nixon was a very intelligent and politically astute man. He knew when to say “when.”
Dubya just wants you to pay attention to the words coming out of his mouth no matter what he says, whether or not it makes sense.
Since I’ve never liked beating up on weaklings, this is my last column on Dubya. I am relegating him to the honorary Ann Coulter closet that I reserve for all those people who I deem to be walking wastes of oxygen.
So Dubya now joins the likes of Rush, and Michelle and Alan, and Nancy and Mitch and Glen and Oprah and Mitt and FDT and of course her majesty, the one and only Ann Coulter, the republican party’s Paris Hilton, inside the lock box.
I will find other things to talk about. I promise.
Did you flinch?
Me neither. Dubya has taken his fearmongering to a whole new level. Now he’s uttering the BIGGGGGG “W” word.....WAR....as in World War III..
He says the world has to disarm Iran if we want to avoid WWIII. Anyone who has been listening with a tin ear for the past year and a half knows that the neocons can’t wait to drop a bomb on Iran. If we weren’t already in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Cheney-Bush cabal would probably already have troops on the ground playing find the ayatollah.
I agree that Iran represents a threat. But I don’t agree that military action is the answer. I’m still waiting for Condi to grow some cojones and do the job she is paid to do...be a diplomat and stop this craziness. Enough of this “stand by your man” crap. That’s Laura’s job. She married him.
Dubya’s ratings have dropped to a new low. He’s lower than tricky dick Nixon and that’s low. Dubya just doesn’t get it. He thinks he’s still relevant and is telling anyone who will listen.
The difference is Nixon was smart enough to understand his self inflicted predicament. Nixon was a lot of things..a crook, a racist, a misogynist, an egotist...but he was not stupid...Nixon was a very intelligent and politically astute man. He knew when to say “when.”
Dubya just wants you to pay attention to the words coming out of his mouth no matter what he says, whether or not it makes sense.
Since I’ve never liked beating up on weaklings, this is my last column on Dubya. I am relegating him to the honorary Ann Coulter closet that I reserve for all those people who I deem to be walking wastes of oxygen.
So Dubya now joins the likes of Rush, and Michelle and Alan, and Nancy and Mitch and Glen and Oprah and Mitt and FDT and of course her majesty, the one and only Ann Coulter, the republican party’s Paris Hilton, inside the lock box.
I will find other things to talk about. I promise.
10.17.2007
Real News
A noted American scientist, DNA pioneer and former Nobel Prize winner says blacks are dumber than whites if you believe the testing evidence.
No stranger to controversy, Dr. James Watson who won the Nobel prize back in 1962 for his research into genetic DNA says all you have to do is ask white employers who deal with black employees. Further, Watson, who was addressing a group of British scientists stated that Western social policies are misdirected and misguided because they are based on the assumption that blacks in Africa are as smart as white westerners.
Watson who, for the past 50 years has headed a renown genetic think tank and laboratory in New York is currently embarked on a book tour promoting a book about his racial and pseudo scientific theories. In the book he alleges that the genes that prove his theory will be found within the decade.
Back in 1997 Watson hit the headlines when he stated that women should be allowed to abort any fetus if tests could prove that the child would turn out to be homosexual. He backed off that comment, saying he was just thinking out loud.
Round about that same time he drew links between skin color and sex drive, arguing that blacks have higher libidos. We do like our sex, but then who doesn’t.
He also is alleged to have said “stupidity” will one day be cured.
Given what continues to come out of his mouth....I think not.
I think stupid is genetic...no testing needed....just open your mouth and prove it to the world, and if you happen to be an old dried up white guy attempting to be relevant,then you will at least have a bigger audience of witnesses.
Case closed.
No stranger to controversy, Dr. James Watson who won the Nobel prize back in 1962 for his research into genetic DNA says all you have to do is ask white employers who deal with black employees. Further, Watson, who was addressing a group of British scientists stated that Western social policies are misdirected and misguided because they are based on the assumption that blacks in Africa are as smart as white westerners.
Watson who, for the past 50 years has headed a renown genetic think tank and laboratory in New York is currently embarked on a book tour promoting a book about his racial and pseudo scientific theories. In the book he alleges that the genes that prove his theory will be found within the decade.
Back in 1997 Watson hit the headlines when he stated that women should be allowed to abort any fetus if tests could prove that the child would turn out to be homosexual. He backed off that comment, saying he was just thinking out loud.
Round about that same time he drew links between skin color and sex drive, arguing that blacks have higher libidos. We do like our sex, but then who doesn’t.
He also is alleged to have said “stupidity” will one day be cured.
Given what continues to come out of his mouth....I think not.
I think stupid is genetic...no testing needed....just open your mouth and prove it to the world, and if you happen to be an old dried up white guy attempting to be relevant,then you will at least have a bigger audience of witnesses.
Case closed.
10.15.2007
Genius in the Family
The first born child in the family is always the smartest. It’s a proven fact, just look at me. I’m number one in my family and I’m sure that the number ones among my friends will agree with me, that we are the smartest kids our parents had.
Now our siblings may disagree, but then what do they know? They came second, third and a distant fourth in my case. They didn’t know anything until I told them. So case closed. The first kid rocks. The second is pretty cool too. But the babies...well, no one will ever accuse them of having common sense or natural intelligence.
We number ones excelled in school, our professions, our playtime. We were and still are, the leaders of our social circles.
Face it, we’re just plain good as well as smart.
So why do we need studies to document what all of us already know?
I don’t know, but maybe it’s different for boys. A recently completed Norwegian study looked only at boys and came to the same conclusion, that first born boys rule, but not by much. According to the study, IQs among siblings only differed by a couple of points. In other words if the first boy has an IQ of 103, the next boy has an IQ of 101 and on down to the baby.
The only conclusion I can draw from this study is to have only one kid because the more you have the dumber they get, so stop at one and be happy...
*********
Quick Hits Monday..
Yet another ball-less wonder has stepped forward to tell us in retrospect that Bush’s war is a fiasco. General Rick Sanchez, one of the real live commanders of this quagmire has now spoken up from rear and said the surge isn’t working. He joins the ranks of Colin Powell, General Pace and a few others who now show up on cable talk shows powered by lucrative book deals..
##
FDT
Fred Dalton Thompson....c’mon down! Please! The uninformed masses think you’re their savior.
They think you will rescue them from the unchristian Romney, the perverted Guiliani, the big bad black man Obama or god forbid that loose woman, no name needed, who is only one who really wears a dress.
Sorry Fred, but you’re no Ronald Reagan. You’re not even a “B” actor....It was painfully obvious during the last debate that you really, really do need a script to get by. Keep your day job, honey. You’ll feel better.
##
Condi has surfaced. She’s in Gaza holding news conferences, the topic of which escapes us. But she says her boss is totally focused on peace in the Middle East.
##
Bush’s other woman is focused on the Buddhist monks in Burma. Well, she is a school teacher, so she can tell her husband where Burma is and why the monks are mad.
Now our siblings may disagree, but then what do they know? They came second, third and a distant fourth in my case. They didn’t know anything until I told them. So case closed. The first kid rocks. The second is pretty cool too. But the babies...well, no one will ever accuse them of having common sense or natural intelligence.
We number ones excelled in school, our professions, our playtime. We were and still are, the leaders of our social circles.
Face it, we’re just plain good as well as smart.
So why do we need studies to document what all of us already know?
I don’t know, but maybe it’s different for boys. A recently completed Norwegian study looked only at boys and came to the same conclusion, that first born boys rule, but not by much. According to the study, IQs among siblings only differed by a couple of points. In other words if the first boy has an IQ of 103, the next boy has an IQ of 101 and on down to the baby.
The only conclusion I can draw from this study is to have only one kid because the more you have the dumber they get, so stop at one and be happy...
*********
Quick Hits Monday..
Yet another ball-less wonder has stepped forward to tell us in retrospect that Bush’s war is a fiasco. General Rick Sanchez, one of the real live commanders of this quagmire has now spoken up from rear and said the surge isn’t working. He joins the ranks of Colin Powell, General Pace and a few others who now show up on cable talk shows powered by lucrative book deals..
##
FDT
Fred Dalton Thompson....c’mon down! Please! The uninformed masses think you’re their savior.
They think you will rescue them from the unchristian Romney, the perverted Guiliani, the big bad black man Obama or god forbid that loose woman, no name needed, who is only one who really wears a dress.
Sorry Fred, but you’re no Ronald Reagan. You’re not even a “B” actor....It was painfully obvious during the last debate that you really, really do need a script to get by. Keep your day job, honey. You’ll feel better.
##
Condi has surfaced. She’s in Gaza holding news conferences, the topic of which escapes us. But she says her boss is totally focused on peace in the Middle East.
##
Bush’s other woman is focused on the Buddhist monks in Burma. Well, she is a school teacher, so she can tell her husband where Burma is and why the monks are mad.
10.03.2007
Isaiah Thomas: Classless and Clueless
No one who knows of Isaiah Thomas should be surprised by the recent sexual harassment court decision that went against him and the officials of Madison Square Garden in New York. Thomas has been showing his colors for years.
He has no class and it doesn’t surprise me that someone would accuse him of sexual harassment. His ego proceeds him, wherever he goes. For years he’s hidden behind okay basketball talent and a megawatt smile that apparently gets him what he wants.
Jock that I am, I once had Zeke on a basketball pedestal. I liked watching him and the Detroit Pistons play. They were rough and took no prisoners. They dominated until Michael Jordan came along. For the first couple of years it was Pistons’ basketball. The Bulls made it to the playoffs only to be dismissed, because as good as Michael was, he couldn’t beat an entire team by himself.
When the Bulls finally got their act together, they played Piston ball and beat the Pistons at their own game. But Thomas had to have the last word. In the final seconds of the game, Thomas led his teammates off the floor, rather than shake hands with the victorious Bulls. Rather than say “good game” he skulked off to the locker room with that stupid smile on his face.
It was thuggish and ugly, it was a slap in the face to the young Bulls and showed Thomas to be the dirty player he had become, both on and off the court.
The Bulls went on to history, Thomas went on to labor as a mediocre coach, general manager, misguided team owner, forever lost in Michael’s gigantic shadow.
Now, just like back then, he hid behind his smile, his big eyes and his momma....”she taught me better than that......”I’m totally, totally, innocent..”
Yeah, right...look deeper...there are probably more victims, run over by the Isaiah train, who haven’t surfaced yet..
He has no class and it doesn’t surprise me that someone would accuse him of sexual harassment. His ego proceeds him, wherever he goes. For years he’s hidden behind okay basketball talent and a megawatt smile that apparently gets him what he wants.
Jock that I am, I once had Zeke on a basketball pedestal. I liked watching him and the Detroit Pistons play. They were rough and took no prisoners. They dominated until Michael Jordan came along. For the first couple of years it was Pistons’ basketball. The Bulls made it to the playoffs only to be dismissed, because as good as Michael was, he couldn’t beat an entire team by himself.
When the Bulls finally got their act together, they played Piston ball and beat the Pistons at their own game. But Thomas had to have the last word. In the final seconds of the game, Thomas led his teammates off the floor, rather than shake hands with the victorious Bulls. Rather than say “good game” he skulked off to the locker room with that stupid smile on his face.
It was thuggish and ugly, it was a slap in the face to the young Bulls and showed Thomas to be the dirty player he had become, both on and off the court.
The Bulls went on to history, Thomas went on to labor as a mediocre coach, general manager, misguided team owner, forever lost in Michael’s gigantic shadow.
Now, just like back then, he hid behind his smile, his big eyes and his momma....”she taught me better than that......”I’m totally, totally, innocent..”
Yeah, right...look deeper...there are probably more victims, run over by the Isaiah train, who haven’t surfaced yet..
10.02.2007
Another Uppity Black Man?! HA!
When pigs fly! That’s what we say in Cincinnati when bullshit floats to the surface...When pigs fly...
Clarence Thomas...Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas calls himself an “uppity black man.” If he is uppity, then I need to change my name to Angela or Harriet or Sojourner. If he’s uppity, I need to buy a gun to protect myself from coming lynch parties that routinely materialize when “uppity blacks” speak their minds.
Uppity? Clarence Thomas wouldn’t know “Uppity” if it bit him in the ass...excuse my disrespect, please. I try to give respect to all human beings, but only if you earn it...and don’t twist your mouth around to say stupid shit like that....The term “uppity” has to be earned...you can’t self proclaim that, fool!
Let me give you some examples of “uppity” black folks.......Muhammed Ali, he refused to be drafted to go to Vietnam and got stripped of his heavyweight title.
Mike Tyson is an uppity black man...does anything and everything he wants, good or bad..he is also very very crazy...
Barack Obama is an uppity black man...he dares to run for the White House.....You want conservative black uppityness...try Alan Keyes...another crazy MF...but definitely uppity..
Justice Thurgood Marshall was an uppity black man...Bill Cosby is uppity...
RuPaul is uppity and very very fashionable!
Hell, even P Diddy or whatever the hell he calls himself these days is uppity...How about Ice T, Ice Cube, Wesley Snipes, and lord don’t let us forget Danny Glover..
Uppity? How about Whoopie Goldberg on the distaff side? How about Angela Bassett..
How about any black person who dares to speak out against the system called America and pays a price....Can you say Eartha Kitt?
Malcolm, Martin, Eldridge....I’m just sticking with the uppity names you know..there are countless others who have gone so far as to have given their lives in anonymity because they were “uppity.”
I’ve read Thomas’ book...I’ve read the books about Thomas...I’ve watched Thomas from jump...all the way from his nomination by Daddy Bush...through Anita Hill...and all his years to date, on the Supreme Court....
Uppity? No!
How about ego driven, under achiever with a huge chip on his shoulder, who is very obviously mad at the world.
As we say in the ghetto...”A brother’s got some issues that need working out..”:
Try love and honesty with self first, Mr. Thomas...then maybe all that uppityness will one day really shine through....
Clarence Thomas...Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas calls himself an “uppity black man.” If he is uppity, then I need to change my name to Angela or Harriet or Sojourner. If he’s uppity, I need to buy a gun to protect myself from coming lynch parties that routinely materialize when “uppity blacks” speak their minds.
Uppity? Clarence Thomas wouldn’t know “Uppity” if it bit him in the ass...excuse my disrespect, please. I try to give respect to all human beings, but only if you earn it...and don’t twist your mouth around to say stupid shit like that....The term “uppity” has to be earned...you can’t self proclaim that, fool!
Let me give you some examples of “uppity” black folks.......Muhammed Ali, he refused to be drafted to go to Vietnam and got stripped of his heavyweight title.
Mike Tyson is an uppity black man...does anything and everything he wants, good or bad..he is also very very crazy...
Barack Obama is an uppity black man...he dares to run for the White House.....You want conservative black uppityness...try Alan Keyes...another crazy MF...but definitely uppity..
Justice Thurgood Marshall was an uppity black man...Bill Cosby is uppity...
RuPaul is uppity and very very fashionable!
Hell, even P Diddy or whatever the hell he calls himself these days is uppity...How about Ice T, Ice Cube, Wesley Snipes, and lord don’t let us forget Danny Glover..
Uppity? How about Whoopie Goldberg on the distaff side? How about Angela Bassett..
How about any black person who dares to speak out against the system called America and pays a price....Can you say Eartha Kitt?
Malcolm, Martin, Eldridge....I’m just sticking with the uppity names you know..there are countless others who have gone so far as to have given their lives in anonymity because they were “uppity.”
I’ve read Thomas’ book...I’ve read the books about Thomas...I’ve watched Thomas from jump...all the way from his nomination by Daddy Bush...through Anita Hill...and all his years to date, on the Supreme Court....
Uppity? No!
How about ego driven, under achiever with a huge chip on his shoulder, who is very obviously mad at the world.
As we say in the ghetto...”A brother’s got some issues that need working out..”:
Try love and honesty with self first, Mr. Thomas...then maybe all that uppityness will one day really shine through....
9.20.2007
Questions, Questions, Questions!
Where in the world is Condi Rice? Isn’t she the main United States diplomat in charge of making things better in the world politically between our enemies and us? Why isn’t she over in Iraq attempting to bring calm from chaos?
It was reported that she has been seeking an interview with the Pope and got turned down. He reportedly didn’t want to interrupt his vacation just to see her. We aren’t at war with the Vatican, so why visit him when there are plenty of other people in need of our attention? Who needs a new photo op? Just asking.
*****
Did anyone besides me think that the Petraeus report was just more smoke and mirrors from the White House? Did anyone think the prez’ handpicked boy was going to knock the surge and say it’s not working?
And all that happy horsesh*t about drawing down troops....please....my nephew got shipped out to Iraq last Friday. He is a marine and I’m pissed and getting madder everyday that this quagmire continues unabated.
*****
Alan Greenspan says the war is about oil...why the hell didn’t he say that when he was still working? Now it just looks like he is trying to sell books.
*****
The lynching of Orenthal James Simpson is in full swing....don’t get me wrong...the man killed his ex-wife and her friend...he is a self centered, violent sociopathic egotist of the first order...so arrogant that he continues to surround himself with walking Nicole look alikes and expects everyone to bow down in his wake.....But this whole Las Vegas thing is feeling like a set up....A tape is made in the process and ends up on the internet the next day....c’mon...
I have no sympathy for this man. Justice was not served the last time he was on trial....He literally got away with two murders...white people, it seems, are divided into two camps..there are those who want their pound of flesh...and those who continue to support this walking train wreck called Juice. Black people continue to support him because he is black...that is not enough...he is a bad man...who continues to thumb his nose at the black community until he “needs” us.
If he goes to jail...I prefer to think of this as a Karma smack down...He does deserve to be locked up...but it still won’t bring Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman back...
*****
Donovan McNabb says white quarterbacks are treated differently than black quarterbacks...did he lie? NO! He did not. Carson Palmer keeps hanging his receivers out to dry...what’s it gonna take for someone to notice....TJ or Ocho Cinco in the hospital or paralyzed from a mid air hit by a defender? If Donovan did that..he would be highly criticized and maybe even yanked from the game. Up until a few years ago black quarterbacks were routinely switched to wide receiver because it was commonly thought that we weren’t smart enough to direct things...hmmmmm!
Which reminds me of an old saying....”the only sport or position that we (blacks) can’t play is the one we haven’t tried, yet.”
****
Got a new Attorney General and Minister of Disinformation at the White House...more rats deserting the sinking ship! Is there a question here...no...just a comment...
It was reported that she has been seeking an interview with the Pope and got turned down. He reportedly didn’t want to interrupt his vacation just to see her. We aren’t at war with the Vatican, so why visit him when there are plenty of other people in need of our attention? Who needs a new photo op? Just asking.
*****
Did anyone besides me think that the Petraeus report was just more smoke and mirrors from the White House? Did anyone think the prez’ handpicked boy was going to knock the surge and say it’s not working?
And all that happy horsesh*t about drawing down troops....please....my nephew got shipped out to Iraq last Friday. He is a marine and I’m pissed and getting madder everyday that this quagmire continues unabated.
*****
Alan Greenspan says the war is about oil...why the hell didn’t he say that when he was still working? Now it just looks like he is trying to sell books.
*****
The lynching of Orenthal James Simpson is in full swing....don’t get me wrong...the man killed his ex-wife and her friend...he is a self centered, violent sociopathic egotist of the first order...so arrogant that he continues to surround himself with walking Nicole look alikes and expects everyone to bow down in his wake.....But this whole Las Vegas thing is feeling like a set up....A tape is made in the process and ends up on the internet the next day....c’mon...
I have no sympathy for this man. Justice was not served the last time he was on trial....He literally got away with two murders...white people, it seems, are divided into two camps..there are those who want their pound of flesh...and those who continue to support this walking train wreck called Juice. Black people continue to support him because he is black...that is not enough...he is a bad man...who continues to thumb his nose at the black community until he “needs” us.
If he goes to jail...I prefer to think of this as a Karma smack down...He does deserve to be locked up...but it still won’t bring Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman back...
*****
Donovan McNabb says white quarterbacks are treated differently than black quarterbacks...did he lie? NO! He did not. Carson Palmer keeps hanging his receivers out to dry...what’s it gonna take for someone to notice....TJ or Ocho Cinco in the hospital or paralyzed from a mid air hit by a defender? If Donovan did that..he would be highly criticized and maybe even yanked from the game. Up until a few years ago black quarterbacks were routinely switched to wide receiver because it was commonly thought that we weren’t smart enough to direct things...hmmmmm!
Which reminds me of an old saying....”the only sport or position that we (blacks) can’t play is the one we haven’t tried, yet.”
****
Got a new Attorney General and Minister of Disinformation at the White House...more rats deserting the sinking ship! Is there a question here...no...just a comment...
9.07.2007
Cincinnati Justice
Examining recent court rulings in Cincinnati might lead one to believe that letting a dog die in your back yard is infinitely worse than leaving your kid to die strapped in the back seat of your car. I have already talked about the Clermont County vice principal whose daughter was found in the back seat of her Mercedes in the school parking lot. The prosecutor refused to bring charges alleging the death was an accident. He claimed he followed the letter of the law in not seeking a grand jury indictment.
Now comes word about the woman who left the dog in her backyard. It was a pit bull. She didn’t own the dog. It belonged to her brother, and he admitted putting the dog back there. She was jailed because it was her house and was sentenced to two weeks in jail for cruelty to animals. She actually was let go for time already served. The judge claimed she followed the letter of the law in making her decision.
Follow up on both stories shows that Ms Clermont County had been warned about leaving her daughter in the car on at least two other occasions prior to the child’s death, the last happening just a couple of days before the fatal incident. Yet, there was no crime committed.
The pit bull lady apparently got charged more than ten years ago with child endangering..she apparently left her kid alone while she went out drinking. Nothing recent had happened in the pit bull lady’s life...she was a hardworking homeowner these days and her kids are okay. Crime committed.
Similarities....both female, both working women, both with children, both apparently expert multi-taskers at juggling life
Differences....one white, one black....., one upper middle class, school teacher, one, urban, fast food worker......, one with husband who fixes Mercedes, one, no husband talked about..one kid dead, the other, brother’s dog dead.....one jailed and convicted....one not even charged...hmmmmm!
Cincinnati keeps saying it is working hard to erase it’s racist image, but snapshots like these make it damn near impossible. In Cincinnati and Ohio in general, it really is Justice for them and Just us for us.
If both court officers followed the letter of the law, then the laws of Ohio need to be changed. Not only that but enforcement needs to be changed.
When blacks are arrested they are first and foremost drug tested and locked up, until stuff is sorted out. The same goes for poor white people. When non poor whites are arrested they are asked down the station, interviewed and maybe arrested a couple of days, weeks or months later.
No justice....still
Now comes word about the woman who left the dog in her backyard. It was a pit bull. She didn’t own the dog. It belonged to her brother, and he admitted putting the dog back there. She was jailed because it was her house and was sentenced to two weeks in jail for cruelty to animals. She actually was let go for time already served. The judge claimed she followed the letter of the law in making her decision.
Follow up on both stories shows that Ms Clermont County had been warned about leaving her daughter in the car on at least two other occasions prior to the child’s death, the last happening just a couple of days before the fatal incident. Yet, there was no crime committed.
The pit bull lady apparently got charged more than ten years ago with child endangering..she apparently left her kid alone while she went out drinking. Nothing recent had happened in the pit bull lady’s life...she was a hardworking homeowner these days and her kids are okay. Crime committed.
Similarities....both female, both working women, both with children, both apparently expert multi-taskers at juggling life
Differences....one white, one black....., one upper middle class, school teacher, one, urban, fast food worker......, one with husband who fixes Mercedes, one, no husband talked about..one kid dead, the other, brother’s dog dead.....one jailed and convicted....one not even charged...hmmmmm!
Cincinnati keeps saying it is working hard to erase it’s racist image, but snapshots like these make it damn near impossible. In Cincinnati and Ohio in general, it really is Justice for them and Just us for us.
If both court officers followed the letter of the law, then the laws of Ohio need to be changed. Not only that but enforcement needs to be changed.
When blacks are arrested they are first and foremost drug tested and locked up, until stuff is sorted out. The same goes for poor white people. When non poor whites are arrested they are asked down the station, interviewed and maybe arrested a couple of days, weeks or months later.
No justice....still
9.05.2007
Baubles, Bangles and Designer Kids
I don’t have children, and that I don’t was both choice and luck. When I was experimenting with sex in my younger days, I was lucky enough not to have gotten pregnant. When I realized the ramifications of having children, I made the choice not to have them. Call me selfish, if you will. I wanted a career. I wanted to see the world, and being a black woman, I did not see how I could do that with a kid in tow, the way I wanted to do it. The same applies for marriage. I don’t believe in marriage, not for women, anyway. Besides, as I have said before in previous writings, that I am gay. I admitted that fact to myself and came to acceptance without having to deal with the consequences of children and marriage. My sexuality is not a choice. It simply is. Children and marriage are choices. Were I married and or pregnant or were raising children, I would still be a lesbian. It is my norm, just like being a woman, being black or being left handed.
I have never regretted that decision. I like kids, as long as I can send them home when I’m tired of them. The four years I spent living with my sister and her four children were the longest four years of my life. I love them all, but I was glad and relieved when they finally moved into a home of their own.
I have been watching with interest the story unfolding around the school teacher who forgot that her two year old was strapped in a car seat in her SUV as she drove to work on one of the hottest days of this year. The mother parked the car in the school parking lot, took doughnuts out of the trunk for a faculty meeting and left the baby in the car seat. She died after going unattended for 8 hours. The body was discovered by somebody else who was parked next to the mother’s SUV
Union Township police wanted the woman charged with child endangering. The Clermont County prosecutor said the whole situation was an accident. Since she didn’t intend to neglect her kid she did not commit a crime and therefore will not be punished.
The Cincinnati community is split with half wanting the woman jailed, while the other half agrees with the prosecutor.
It never occurred to me that the woman would be charged with a crime. Not because I don’t believe one was committed, but because of the surrounding circumstance.
If the woman had been poor, and lived in the inner city, married or not, working or not, she would have been jailed from day one. She would have been charged immediately convicted by the public, written off as an unfit mother and quickly forgotten. That is not a judgement, it is simply fact.
There is a woman in jail as I write this. A young girl, single, poor, who left her two kids in the closet at home while she went to work. This was a bad, bad decision. This was a dangerous decision. But was it criminal? Was there intent to harm? The children are okay, but as I said the mother is in jail, already labeled and in the court of public opinion, convicted. No one that I can see has jumped to her defense.
The offender in this case was a successful, career woman. She is married, living in the burbs, vice principal of a large suburban school. She is probably an expert multi tasker. She drove a Mercedes SUV, although it must be interjected that the car was purchased second hand after a wreck and her husband did the repairs himself. That has somehow been thrown out as a mitigating circumstance in this tragic affair.
In making his decision not to prosecute, the prosecutor said there was no intent to harm.
There was a young woman busted last week because her children were found walking down the street at daybreak while she slept in the house. She didn’t put them outside. She didn’t intend for them to get into a dangerous, life threatening situation. It just happened, an accident. She too, is jailed. The kids survived their ordeal.
Our suburbanite hasn’t spent one day in jail. She did talk with police and apparently cried during the interview, another apparent mitigating factor tossed out. She has an attorney instead of an overworked public defender.
Why is it that our compassion and justice system are apparently driven by economics and station in life? Why can’t poor people catch a break sometimes, like wealthier suburbanites?
A lot of us have too much on our minds. A lot of us spend too much time collecting stuff...cars, houses, jewelry and yes even children.
The decision to have children is a monumental one. It is not a decision that should simply be left to biology. Kids are life altering. They are the number one priority when you choose to have them, not the doughnuts, or the golf clubs, or the job or the house or the car. If they can’t be your number one priority, then you shouldn’t have them, period. Anyone who thinks otherwise, is deluding themselves.
It’s illegal in the state of California to leave a dog unattended in the car. The same should apply to kids regardless of your economic situation.
I have never regretted that decision. I like kids, as long as I can send them home when I’m tired of them. The four years I spent living with my sister and her four children were the longest four years of my life. I love them all, but I was glad and relieved when they finally moved into a home of their own.
I have been watching with interest the story unfolding around the school teacher who forgot that her two year old was strapped in a car seat in her SUV as she drove to work on one of the hottest days of this year. The mother parked the car in the school parking lot, took doughnuts out of the trunk for a faculty meeting and left the baby in the car seat. She died after going unattended for 8 hours. The body was discovered by somebody else who was parked next to the mother’s SUV
Union Township police wanted the woman charged with child endangering. The Clermont County prosecutor said the whole situation was an accident. Since she didn’t intend to neglect her kid she did not commit a crime and therefore will not be punished.
The Cincinnati community is split with half wanting the woman jailed, while the other half agrees with the prosecutor.
It never occurred to me that the woman would be charged with a crime. Not because I don’t believe one was committed, but because of the surrounding circumstance.
If the woman had been poor, and lived in the inner city, married or not, working or not, she would have been jailed from day one. She would have been charged immediately convicted by the public, written off as an unfit mother and quickly forgotten. That is not a judgement, it is simply fact.
There is a woman in jail as I write this. A young girl, single, poor, who left her two kids in the closet at home while she went to work. This was a bad, bad decision. This was a dangerous decision. But was it criminal? Was there intent to harm? The children are okay, but as I said the mother is in jail, already labeled and in the court of public opinion, convicted. No one that I can see has jumped to her defense.
The offender in this case was a successful, career woman. She is married, living in the burbs, vice principal of a large suburban school. She is probably an expert multi tasker. She drove a Mercedes SUV, although it must be interjected that the car was purchased second hand after a wreck and her husband did the repairs himself. That has somehow been thrown out as a mitigating circumstance in this tragic affair.
In making his decision not to prosecute, the prosecutor said there was no intent to harm.
There was a young woman busted last week because her children were found walking down the street at daybreak while she slept in the house. She didn’t put them outside. She didn’t intend for them to get into a dangerous, life threatening situation. It just happened, an accident. She too, is jailed. The kids survived their ordeal.
Our suburbanite hasn’t spent one day in jail. She did talk with police and apparently cried during the interview, another apparent mitigating factor tossed out. She has an attorney instead of an overworked public defender.
Why is it that our compassion and justice system are apparently driven by economics and station in life? Why can’t poor people catch a break sometimes, like wealthier suburbanites?
A lot of us have too much on our minds. A lot of us spend too much time collecting stuff...cars, houses, jewelry and yes even children.
The decision to have children is a monumental one. It is not a decision that should simply be left to biology. Kids are life altering. They are the number one priority when you choose to have them, not the doughnuts, or the golf clubs, or the job or the house or the car. If they can’t be your number one priority, then you shouldn’t have them, period. Anyone who thinks otherwise, is deluding themselves.
It’s illegal in the state of California to leave a dog unattended in the car. The same should apply to kids regardless of your economic situation.
8.31.2007
Now see, What had happened was....
Coincidence rules the world. How many times have we all ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time, or even the right place at the right time. Coincidence right....When it’s a good thing we’re happy. We go on. But if it’s a bad thing, well then your life may take a turn and you may end up in the middle of a Karma smack down.
Which brings me around to good ole boy Senator Larry Craig who, if you believe his version, heard the call of nature while changing planes and went into a restroom at the airport. Much as luck would have it, he chose to squat in a stall next to an undercover policeman out to trap gay men who like anonymous sex in bathrooms.
The officer was on stakeout looking for illegal activity. He was there because of numerous complaints about this particular restroom. In fact, this particular restroom is listed on the internets as a good place for sex if you happen to be in Minneapolis.
Well, poor unsuspecting Senator Craig, apparently made some strange gestures with his hands like dangling his fingers under the stall wall and bumping the policeman’s foot with his own foot, again under the stall wall and got arrested for disorderly conduct. He was not charged with soliciting, but in his statement after his arrest, Craig accused the officer of soliciting him and entrapping him.
Later, Craig quietly pleaded guilty to reduced charges, paid a fine. He did all of this by mail a couple of months after the incident. He even signed a statement saying he understood the allegations. I believe him, after all, isn’t he a United States Senator? Aren’t these the guys who write our laws....so he must have understood what he signed, right?
Now that the story has come out the Senator is claiming he is innocent.......”I AM NOT GAY” he said in a news conference with his wife fixed firmly to his side, proving that he is a straight man.
At least I think she was a woman, drag queens don’t usually look so dowdy, so she must have been real. But, “I AM NOT GAY!” Ranks right up there with ‘I AM NOT A CROOK!” or “I DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH THAT WOMAN!”
Craig has long been rumored to be gay. The talk keeps coming back every time the very conservative Senator votes against legislation affecting gays and lesbians.
I don’t know what he is, and I don’t really care.
I just think it’s yucky to touch bathroom walls and stalls. And I certainly don’t want to talk to anyone while I’m trying to do the doo. It’s hard to grunt, push and expel while holding a conversation.
But then maybe I’m not as talented as the Senator from Idaho. Judging from the way his fellow republicans are acting, I guess they can’t talk and shit at the same time either.
Which brings me around to good ole boy Senator Larry Craig who, if you believe his version, heard the call of nature while changing planes and went into a restroom at the airport. Much as luck would have it, he chose to squat in a stall next to an undercover policeman out to trap gay men who like anonymous sex in bathrooms.
The officer was on stakeout looking for illegal activity. He was there because of numerous complaints about this particular restroom. In fact, this particular restroom is listed on the internets as a good place for sex if you happen to be in Minneapolis.
Well, poor unsuspecting Senator Craig, apparently made some strange gestures with his hands like dangling his fingers under the stall wall and bumping the policeman’s foot with his own foot, again under the stall wall and got arrested for disorderly conduct. He was not charged with soliciting, but in his statement after his arrest, Craig accused the officer of soliciting him and entrapping him.
Later, Craig quietly pleaded guilty to reduced charges, paid a fine. He did all of this by mail a couple of months after the incident. He even signed a statement saying he understood the allegations. I believe him, after all, isn’t he a United States Senator? Aren’t these the guys who write our laws....so he must have understood what he signed, right?
Now that the story has come out the Senator is claiming he is innocent.......”I AM NOT GAY” he said in a news conference with his wife fixed firmly to his side, proving that he is a straight man.
At least I think she was a woman, drag queens don’t usually look so dowdy, so she must have been real. But, “I AM NOT GAY!” Ranks right up there with ‘I AM NOT A CROOK!” or “I DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH THAT WOMAN!”
Craig has long been rumored to be gay. The talk keeps coming back every time the very conservative Senator votes against legislation affecting gays and lesbians.
I don’t know what he is, and I don’t really care.
I just think it’s yucky to touch bathroom walls and stalls. And I certainly don’t want to talk to anyone while I’m trying to do the doo. It’s hard to grunt, push and expel while holding a conversation.
But then maybe I’m not as talented as the Senator from Idaho. Judging from the way his fellow republicans are acting, I guess they can’t talk and shit at the same time either.
8.28.2007
The Question of Michael Vick
Let me say right up front that I have a problem with dumb jocks. Before I start calling names I have to tell you that back in the day and even now, I’m a jock. I like sports. I love sports. I breathe sports. But I have always had a problem with guys and women who feel that because they can dunk a basketball, score a touchdown or slam a ball where ever the hell they want, that the rest of us should bow down and kiss their ass, or look the other way...just because...
I revel in their athletic ability, and like the fact that they can cash in on their talent and get rich and support their families. But that doesn’t give them the right to live above the law, or the moral boundaries that bind us as a society.
Michael Vick, that beautiful, graceful, talented man....is a dumb jock. He is stupid. So wrapped up in his “I am the world” that he failed to see the lessons of the past.....the lesson....”what the man giveth...the man will taketh away...if you screw up...” And he screwed up.
In this country....you don’t mess with his women and you don’t mess with dogs. OJ committed the first sin, Vick committed the second.
It’s okay to sin against your fellow athletes, jock sniffers and other fans...Pete Rose did it and lied about it...Ray Lewis did it..Packman Jones makes a habit of it, Chris Henry flaunts it and is serving an eight game suspension when the season starts. Screw up and you will be docked some money, but you will still get to play.....unless you do the dirty or carry the lie to infinity like Pete Rose.
Vick bankrolled dog fighting. Americans love their pets. I love my dogs. I have three of them. I abhor dog fighting. I can’t even watch that movie with Jet Li where he plays a man trained to be an attack dog.
Vick got caught and after a little hesitation, has pleaded guilty, will probably do some jail time and lose a whole lot of money. He was contrite and even said he found God.... Bull crap...everybody finds God when it serves their purpose. Keeping God in your life is the trick. Vick needs to work on that one a little. But after watching his off the cuff mea culpa, he does seem to have located his manhood hiding behind the dumb jock peter pan who never quite grew up.
The NFL is trying to disavow him and take back the spotlight that has made him and them so much money. His shoe company has dumped him.
The Atlanta Falcons, it seems are trying to “undraft” him, by demanding he give back his signing bonus..
I don’t agree...he earned that money. He should be allowed to keep it, just as he should be allowed to play ball, if he can make it back into the league once he serves his time and pays his fines.
Punishment shouldn’t go on forever, unless you manage to get away with murder. Vick is like every other one of us....we all deserve a second chance and usually get it.
Michael Vick should be allowed a second chance, too.
I revel in their athletic ability, and like the fact that they can cash in on their talent and get rich and support their families. But that doesn’t give them the right to live above the law, or the moral boundaries that bind us as a society.
Michael Vick, that beautiful, graceful, talented man....is a dumb jock. He is stupid. So wrapped up in his “I am the world” that he failed to see the lessons of the past.....the lesson....”what the man giveth...the man will taketh away...if you screw up...” And he screwed up.
In this country....you don’t mess with his women and you don’t mess with dogs. OJ committed the first sin, Vick committed the second.
It’s okay to sin against your fellow athletes, jock sniffers and other fans...Pete Rose did it and lied about it...Ray Lewis did it..Packman Jones makes a habit of it, Chris Henry flaunts it and is serving an eight game suspension when the season starts. Screw up and you will be docked some money, but you will still get to play.....unless you do the dirty or carry the lie to infinity like Pete Rose.
Vick bankrolled dog fighting. Americans love their pets. I love my dogs. I have three of them. I abhor dog fighting. I can’t even watch that movie with Jet Li where he plays a man trained to be an attack dog.
Vick got caught and after a little hesitation, has pleaded guilty, will probably do some jail time and lose a whole lot of money. He was contrite and even said he found God.... Bull crap...everybody finds God when it serves their purpose. Keeping God in your life is the trick. Vick needs to work on that one a little. But after watching his off the cuff mea culpa, he does seem to have located his manhood hiding behind the dumb jock peter pan who never quite grew up.
The NFL is trying to disavow him and take back the spotlight that has made him and them so much money. His shoe company has dumped him.
The Atlanta Falcons, it seems are trying to “undraft” him, by demanding he give back his signing bonus..
I don’t agree...he earned that money. He should be allowed to keep it, just as he should be allowed to play ball, if he can make it back into the league once he serves his time and pays his fines.
Punishment shouldn’t go on forever, unless you manage to get away with murder. Vick is like every other one of us....we all deserve a second chance and usually get it.
Michael Vick should be allowed a second chance, too.
8.21.2007
Reality Bites
PUT THE PHONE DOWN!......texting while walking can get you run over by a train...an 18 year old Elmwood Place youth was apparently so busy letting his fingers do the walking that he literally walked in front of a train yesterday...Luckily he lived to tell about it. Witnesses said he was knocked some 50 feet, landed and was unconscious for a while, but woke up. He is hospitalized with some bumps and bruises and a helluva story to tell his grandkids...if he lives that long....
******
Another indication that Dubya screwed up by taking us into an unprovoked war with Iraq...We’re apparently running out of bullets...our police that is...I guess we only have finite ammunition and that it’s being used up in Iraq...hmmmmmm....That goes along with not enough manpower for the surge...not enough troops to continue fighting or securing a country....not enough troops to secure America...if the war happens to come to our shores...
*****
Money is another thing running out in America...we keep borrowing from China to make ends meet as a country...deficit is through the roof and circling Mars...
Now comes word, yet again, that the richest 1 percent are getting all the pay raises while the rest of us are forced to live on pre 2000 salaries...
******
Beloit College has released a list of things that the class of 2011 knows...IE...the word “lame” means stupid rather than someone who walks with a limp....or that rap music has always been main stream..The complete list is in USA TODAY...
Got me thinking about my younger relatives....My six year old nephew...born in the year 2000..once asked me what kind of video games I played when I was little. I told him I didn’t have video games when I was little...He then asked me...if I was “poor” when I was little...He couldn’t grasp the idea that video games did not exist and that it was a matter of not having enough money rather than no one had thought it up yet....His older siblings...teenagers, born in the early 1990's...once learned that just because the microwave is broken....doesn’t mean you have no way to pop popcorn...you can take it out of the bag...add a little oil to a pan and do it the old fashion way....NEAT!
Other things I grew up with.....party lines...black and white TV...in fact, my grandfather went out and bought a color TV so we could watch the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights...WWD was the first show to go all color on TV....We weren’t allowed to use calculators in school...got you a failing grade and charges of cheating..We didn’t even know what a laptop was....no cell phones...and the windows in cars...well they roll down...you didn’t push a button....
So...what’s your reality growing up?
******
Another indication that Dubya screwed up by taking us into an unprovoked war with Iraq...We’re apparently running out of bullets...our police that is...I guess we only have finite ammunition and that it’s being used up in Iraq...hmmmmmm....That goes along with not enough manpower for the surge...not enough troops to continue fighting or securing a country....not enough troops to secure America...if the war happens to come to our shores...
*****
Money is another thing running out in America...we keep borrowing from China to make ends meet as a country...deficit is through the roof and circling Mars...
Now comes word, yet again, that the richest 1 percent are getting all the pay raises while the rest of us are forced to live on pre 2000 salaries...
******
Beloit College has released a list of things that the class of 2011 knows...IE...the word “lame” means stupid rather than someone who walks with a limp....or that rap music has always been main stream..The complete list is in USA TODAY...
Got me thinking about my younger relatives....My six year old nephew...born in the year 2000..once asked me what kind of video games I played when I was little. I told him I didn’t have video games when I was little...He then asked me...if I was “poor” when I was little...He couldn’t grasp the idea that video games did not exist and that it was a matter of not having enough money rather than no one had thought it up yet....His older siblings...teenagers, born in the early 1990's...once learned that just because the microwave is broken....doesn’t mean you have no way to pop popcorn...you can take it out of the bag...add a little oil to a pan and do it the old fashion way....NEAT!
Other things I grew up with.....party lines...black and white TV...in fact, my grandfather went out and bought a color TV so we could watch the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights...WWD was the first show to go all color on TV....We weren’t allowed to use calculators in school...got you a failing grade and charges of cheating..We didn’t even know what a laptop was....no cell phones...and the windows in cars...well they roll down...you didn’t push a button....
So...what’s your reality growing up?
8.20.2007
Movie Star Prez and Trophy Wife
Are we ready for yet another movie star in the White House? Apparently some are, if you believe the hype around the maybe presidential run of Fred Dalton Thompson, former congressman, lobbyist and sometime movie and television actor.
He looks good, is tall, speaks well, has a deep voice...all the things that Americans like in their presidents. He also likes blondes. He even married his latest trophy and she reportedly plays a big role in his maybe campaign. Is middle America ready for another bossy blonde female in the White House? Or does she know that her place is really in the great man’s shadow, quietly clutching his hand while whispering orders once the bedroom door is closed.
She has political experience. She was one of Thompson’s campaign assistants when he was in congress, when he was married to wife number two, I think. Thompson’s had several wives. It’s kind of hard to gauge his time line, he’s been in and out of marriage so often. But his penchant for marriage shouldn’t hinder his moral stance, should it? I mean at least he marries em after he beds em. Any blow jobs in the White House would be legal, unless they involved interns.
The no nonsense make believe prosecutor is having trouble raising money, but word is he will jump into the ring anyway. He hasn’t debated yet, but has taken a stance on Roe v Wade and gay and lesbian civil rights.
I don’t know what his stand is on Iraq, but I would guess that it mirrors our current president’s
view. In fact, Thompson and his wife seem pretty, pretty conservative despite their Hollywood lifestyle.
Makes me think he’s more of the same.....”do as I say....not as I do.”
I like him in his day job on Law and Order...but there is no way in hell I’d vote for him..even if he declares...even if he wins the nomination....no way...no how...
He looks good, is tall, speaks well, has a deep voice...all the things that Americans like in their presidents. He also likes blondes. He even married his latest trophy and she reportedly plays a big role in his maybe campaign. Is middle America ready for another bossy blonde female in the White House? Or does she know that her place is really in the great man’s shadow, quietly clutching his hand while whispering orders once the bedroom door is closed.
She has political experience. She was one of Thompson’s campaign assistants when he was in congress, when he was married to wife number two, I think. Thompson’s had several wives. It’s kind of hard to gauge his time line, he’s been in and out of marriage so often. But his penchant for marriage shouldn’t hinder his moral stance, should it? I mean at least he marries em after he beds em. Any blow jobs in the White House would be legal, unless they involved interns.
The no nonsense make believe prosecutor is having trouble raising money, but word is he will jump into the ring anyway. He hasn’t debated yet, but has taken a stance on Roe v Wade and gay and lesbian civil rights.
I don’t know what his stand is on Iraq, but I would guess that it mirrors our current president’s
view. In fact, Thompson and his wife seem pretty, pretty conservative despite their Hollywood lifestyle.
Makes me think he’s more of the same.....”do as I say....not as I do.”
I like him in his day job on Law and Order...but there is no way in hell I’d vote for him..even if he declares...even if he wins the nomination....no way...no how...
8.13.2007
Monday Headlines
Bush loses brain...so what else is new....didn’t know he had one to lose in the first place. Really, now, Karl Rove is resigning effective August 31st. The architect of this most recent political disaster is stepping down to pursue other adventures. Probably going to hook up with Fred Dalton Thompson for a presidential run...
Found out something new today...Rove never graduated from college...any college. Gee, wonder how far the rest of us would get in this world without a diploma or without the sponsorship of one of the scions of America’s first family....always separate and never equal when it comes to the masters of the universe...
*********
Anyone seen Condi lately? Just asking...She hasn’t been heard from for a while...now I guess it is no longer necessary for her to be seen either since we all now know that Dubya’s “compassionate conservatism” was a sham from jump street....
*********
Mitt Romney won the straw vote in Iowa this past weekend....He got a whopping 3500 votes with Huckabee coming in second and Brownback coming third....any minorities cast votes....any women other than GOP stepford wives? Just asking....
*********
Interesting report out this past weekend talking about the least trusted industries in America...the bottom of the barrel.....health insurance industry...the oil industry....the airline industry....
*******
Tiger won another major....I was glad that the other golfers, specifically Ernie Els and Woodie Austin didn’t fold down the stretch and actually made a run at Young Eldrick...It’s good to know that some golfers are finally finding their balls someplace other than the bottom of their golf bag.
He needs the competition...We need the competition...I’m tired of the parades of adoration...If golf is a sport...then let the combatants act like it for a change....
Found out something new today...Rove never graduated from college...any college. Gee, wonder how far the rest of us would get in this world without a diploma or without the sponsorship of one of the scions of America’s first family....always separate and never equal when it comes to the masters of the universe...
*********
Anyone seen Condi lately? Just asking...She hasn’t been heard from for a while...now I guess it is no longer necessary for her to be seen either since we all now know that Dubya’s “compassionate conservatism” was a sham from jump street....
*********
Mitt Romney won the straw vote in Iowa this past weekend....He got a whopping 3500 votes with Huckabee coming in second and Brownback coming third....any minorities cast votes....any women other than GOP stepford wives? Just asking....
*********
Interesting report out this past weekend talking about the least trusted industries in America...the bottom of the barrel.....health insurance industry...the oil industry....the airline industry....
*******
Tiger won another major....I was glad that the other golfers, specifically Ernie Els and Woodie Austin didn’t fold down the stretch and actually made a run at Young Eldrick...It’s good to know that some golfers are finally finding their balls someplace other than the bottom of their golf bag.
He needs the competition...We need the competition...I’m tired of the parades of adoration...If golf is a sport...then let the combatants act like it for a change....
8.10.2007
No Respect, No Love for Life
Another report from the Justice Department confirms once again that “we” are our own worst enemy. The report deals with the latest increases in crime and basically tells us what we already know...that black people kill black people and white people kill white people.
What is so disheartening about this report is that it claims that most black murder victims..93% in fact, are between the ages of 17 and 29 and male. Conversely, white victims tend to be older, only 37% are between the ages of 17 and 29.
Blacks make up 13% of this country’s population yet account for 49% of all murders and 15% of rapes, assaults and other non fatal violent crimes. The only people who die younger and faster than black youth are native americans.
The experts blame easy access to illegal drugs and guns and generations of young black men locked out of economic opportunity.
As I look at these statistics, I guess my own outlook has changed. Usually I am outraged at this senseless loss. My anger usually pores out on the page. But today is different. I’m, well, maybe I’m tired. Maybe I’m resigned. Maybe I’ve given up trying to reach anyone through my words. Outrage doesn’t work. Nobody listens...not the kids, not the parents, not the community, not the politicians, not the police.
I drive through my neighborhood, a once and future vibrant corner of city life and see the hopelessness on every street corner. Young men in white t-shirts and baggy jeans blatantly displaying their designer boxers shorts above their sagging waistbands disrespecting all who bother to glance their way. They’re out there at all hours, no matter what time I pass by. Girls, young women, standing in the shadows admiring the young men, visibly pregnant, with maybe a baby or two in tow. Anytime of the day, this drama unfolds itself for anyone watching.
While the young men pose on the corner, Avondale, one of the oldest of Cincinnati neighborhoods is being taken away from them. It is being revitalized by whites moving back into the neighborhoods in answer to the gasoline crisis. Real estate is cheap. Older black homeowners who bought from the Jews when Avondale was a Jewish ghetto, are dying out being replaced by younger white speculators with cash to burn and money to invest, spawning a new generation of absentee landlords. Avondale is going green and getting a new coat of paint. It is getting set to sparkle once again like when I was kid, some 50 years ago.
The young men and their absent families are being pushed out. I don’t know where the young men on the corner go when and if they go home. Their neighborhood, the very thing that could save them, is being taken. The sidewalks are being pulled out from under their feet as they claw for existence and survival. Home is the foundation for economic well being. They have none. Their families have none. Even if they have a home, they don’t have the skills to take part in the buildup. No one makes them go to school.
They propagate and perpetuate the cycle, making babies, and baby mommas, with no support or way to get a leg up in society, chewed up almost before they’re spit out.
Soon they will be gone from the corners in Avondale. Police crackdowns and enforcement cameras will push them away from the newly revitalized areas. Out of sight, out of mind. The cycle will resume again somewhere else, if they live.
And maybe that is the answer....dying rather than living...their only way out of a bleak and seemingly endless waking nightmare.
What is so disheartening about this report is that it claims that most black murder victims..93% in fact, are between the ages of 17 and 29 and male. Conversely, white victims tend to be older, only 37% are between the ages of 17 and 29.
Blacks make up 13% of this country’s population yet account for 49% of all murders and 15% of rapes, assaults and other non fatal violent crimes. The only people who die younger and faster than black youth are native americans.
The experts blame easy access to illegal drugs and guns and generations of young black men locked out of economic opportunity.
As I look at these statistics, I guess my own outlook has changed. Usually I am outraged at this senseless loss. My anger usually pores out on the page. But today is different. I’m, well, maybe I’m tired. Maybe I’m resigned. Maybe I’ve given up trying to reach anyone through my words. Outrage doesn’t work. Nobody listens...not the kids, not the parents, not the community, not the politicians, not the police.
I drive through my neighborhood, a once and future vibrant corner of city life and see the hopelessness on every street corner. Young men in white t-shirts and baggy jeans blatantly displaying their designer boxers shorts above their sagging waistbands disrespecting all who bother to glance their way. They’re out there at all hours, no matter what time I pass by. Girls, young women, standing in the shadows admiring the young men, visibly pregnant, with maybe a baby or two in tow. Anytime of the day, this drama unfolds itself for anyone watching.
While the young men pose on the corner, Avondale, one of the oldest of Cincinnati neighborhoods is being taken away from them. It is being revitalized by whites moving back into the neighborhoods in answer to the gasoline crisis. Real estate is cheap. Older black homeowners who bought from the Jews when Avondale was a Jewish ghetto, are dying out being replaced by younger white speculators with cash to burn and money to invest, spawning a new generation of absentee landlords. Avondale is going green and getting a new coat of paint. It is getting set to sparkle once again like when I was kid, some 50 years ago.
The young men and their absent families are being pushed out. I don’t know where the young men on the corner go when and if they go home. Their neighborhood, the very thing that could save them, is being taken. The sidewalks are being pulled out from under their feet as they claw for existence and survival. Home is the foundation for economic well being. They have none. Their families have none. Even if they have a home, they don’t have the skills to take part in the buildup. No one makes them go to school.
They propagate and perpetuate the cycle, making babies, and baby mommas, with no support or way to get a leg up in society, chewed up almost before they’re spit out.
Soon they will be gone from the corners in Avondale. Police crackdowns and enforcement cameras will push them away from the newly revitalized areas. Out of sight, out of mind. The cycle will resume again somewhere else, if they live.
And maybe that is the answer....dying rather than living...their only way out of a bleak and seemingly endless waking nightmare.
8.06.2007
George Orwell Bush
Sunday, while the rest of us were engaged in Sunday summer activities, Dubya was signing new legislation further curtailing our rights to privacy as spelled out by the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Under this latest assault on American freedom, Bush has given the go ahead for the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on our phone conversations without getting a warrant. This latest attack by the prez is an attempt to legalize the nebulous spy program that is supposedly aimed at terrorists.
What the law does is allow government agents to listen in on all international phone calls without a warrant. For example, if I live in Cincinnati and decided to call my niece in Qatar, our government could listen in to our conversations on the bogus assumption that my niece may be a terrorist. They don’t have to prove the allegation or show evidence up front. All they have to do is tap the channel and listen in.
The new law gives oversight power to the Attorney General and the director of National Intelligence.
Hmmmmmmmmmm...I wonder if this is also an attempt to make Gonzo more relevant.
Under this latest assault on American freedom, Bush has given the go ahead for the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on our phone conversations without getting a warrant. This latest attack by the prez is an attempt to legalize the nebulous spy program that is supposedly aimed at terrorists.
What the law does is allow government agents to listen in on all international phone calls without a warrant. For example, if I live in Cincinnati and decided to call my niece in Qatar, our government could listen in to our conversations on the bogus assumption that my niece may be a terrorist. They don’t have to prove the allegation or show evidence up front. All they have to do is tap the channel and listen in.
The new law gives oversight power to the Attorney General and the director of National Intelligence.
Hmmmmmmmmmm...I wonder if this is also an attempt to make Gonzo more relevant.
8.01.2007
Too Much Info
Who cares if beer is only 135 calories, or a glass of red wine is 125 calories or a shot of tequila is only 53 calories?
Our government is becoming expert at avoidance. Rather than deal with the real problems facing our country, our so called leaders want to put nutrition labels on booze. Give me a break!
Who drinks alcohol for nutritional reasons? I certainly don’t. If booze was nutritional alcoholics would be the healthiest people on planet earth.
I drink because I don’t want to think about my current diet or how the war in Iraq is going, or how I’m about to turn 57 and still haven’t reached half the goals I set for myself when I was a sexy, vivacious young fox of 30. I drink because I want to pretend I’m a member of the roundtable at the Algonquin trading quips and barbs with Dorothy Parker. I drink because I want to get smashed and feel like I’m still the queen of the dance floor, not that I ever was, but southern comfort mixed with cranberry juice and a slice of lime, makes me think I am or was. I drink because I need sex and have more courage to ask for it after I’ve swallowed more than my share of tequila worms from the bottom of the bottle.
Booze can teach you a lot about yourself, that is if you’re paying attention. For instance, I’ve learned seven salty dogs makes my bed spin, and that I can stop the spinning by placing one foot firmly on the floor as an anchor.
Four whiskey sours gave me the courage to ask Morgana if I could feel her 55 double D breast implants when I met her at Loll 43. She loved the attention. It was the first time I fondled a woman in public. Whiskey sours also fueled my first visit to the legendary Brass Ass in Kentucky where I saw my first strippers. Man, were they tired looking women. Broke up my fantasy.
I’ve learned not to trade jack Daniels shots with the person who is supposed to be the designated driver and then really let them drive home. We made it, but I don’t know how.
Even hangovers have their uses, like diverting my attention away from, and delaying my self recriminations for going home with the loser with whom I was engaged in sparkling conversation the night before.
C’mon people, who needs another label to remind us that we are overweight, don’t exercise enough and don’t eat right. If you’re like me, you can’t even read the booze label before you start drinking, much less during or after you finish drinking.
Before you know it the government will force women to tattoo their uterus opening with a sign telling babies....Life, extremely dangerous!...enter at your own risk!...sheeesh!
Our government is becoming expert at avoidance. Rather than deal with the real problems facing our country, our so called leaders want to put nutrition labels on booze. Give me a break!
Who drinks alcohol for nutritional reasons? I certainly don’t. If booze was nutritional alcoholics would be the healthiest people on planet earth.
I drink because I don’t want to think about my current diet or how the war in Iraq is going, or how I’m about to turn 57 and still haven’t reached half the goals I set for myself when I was a sexy, vivacious young fox of 30. I drink because I want to pretend I’m a member of the roundtable at the Algonquin trading quips and barbs with Dorothy Parker. I drink because I want to get smashed and feel like I’m still the queen of the dance floor, not that I ever was, but southern comfort mixed with cranberry juice and a slice of lime, makes me think I am or was. I drink because I need sex and have more courage to ask for it after I’ve swallowed more than my share of tequila worms from the bottom of the bottle.
Booze can teach you a lot about yourself, that is if you’re paying attention. For instance, I’ve learned seven salty dogs makes my bed spin, and that I can stop the spinning by placing one foot firmly on the floor as an anchor.
Four whiskey sours gave me the courage to ask Morgana if I could feel her 55 double D breast implants when I met her at Loll 43. She loved the attention. It was the first time I fondled a woman in public. Whiskey sours also fueled my first visit to the legendary Brass Ass in Kentucky where I saw my first strippers. Man, were they tired looking women. Broke up my fantasy.
I’ve learned not to trade jack Daniels shots with the person who is supposed to be the designated driver and then really let them drive home. We made it, but I don’t know how.
Even hangovers have their uses, like diverting my attention away from, and delaying my self recriminations for going home with the loser with whom I was engaged in sparkling conversation the night before.
C’mon people, who needs another label to remind us that we are overweight, don’t exercise enough and don’t eat right. If you’re like me, you can’t even read the booze label before you start drinking, much less during or after you finish drinking.
Before you know it the government will force women to tattoo their uterus opening with a sign telling babies....Life, extremely dangerous!...enter at your own risk!...sheeesh!
7.30.2007
Monday Meanderings
Contempt for Congress
Congress has issued a subpoena for Karl Rove. Does anybody really think he is going to show up? And while we’re at it.....Just what does Congress think Gonzo can clarify, this time? He seems to be compounding his lies about the AG firings rather than explaining what happened. And without a special prosecutor who is going to conduct the investigation of the Justice Dept....the Justice Dept?!
Did you know that Dubya, by order of executive mandate has...
Done away with special prosecutors
Done away with habeas corpus
and
Can declare martial law in the USA if and when he wants to?
All hail King George!
The last time this stuff happened we had a revolution.
*********
Ohio got it right!
Turns out it’s not okay to beat the crap out of your live in girlfriend in Ohio. The State Supreme Court has finally ruled in the Michael Carswell case. Mr Carswell had argued that he could not be charged under Ohio’s domestic violence laws because the state’s newly enacted Defense of Marriage Law did away with all common law legality. According to Mr. Carswell, the term “spouse” could only apply within the confines of a legal marriage between a man and woman. Common law wives and husbands and all LGBT couples were living illegally under DOMA, according to Mr, Carswell’s interpretation and therefore domestic violence couldn’t happen between two unmarried people.
The High Court ruled that while the state can define what constitutes marriage, cohabitation happens when two people decide to live together and therefore domestic violence can happen and is covered by law, DOMA not withstanding.
Congress has issued a subpoena for Karl Rove. Does anybody really think he is going to show up? And while we’re at it.....Just what does Congress think Gonzo can clarify, this time? He seems to be compounding his lies about the AG firings rather than explaining what happened. And without a special prosecutor who is going to conduct the investigation of the Justice Dept....the Justice Dept?!
Did you know that Dubya, by order of executive mandate has...
Done away with special prosecutors
Done away with habeas corpus
and
Can declare martial law in the USA if and when he wants to?
All hail King George!
The last time this stuff happened we had a revolution.
*********
Ohio got it right!
Turns out it’s not okay to beat the crap out of your live in girlfriend in Ohio. The State Supreme Court has finally ruled in the Michael Carswell case. Mr Carswell had argued that he could not be charged under Ohio’s domestic violence laws because the state’s newly enacted Defense of Marriage Law did away with all common law legality. According to Mr. Carswell, the term “spouse” could only apply within the confines of a legal marriage between a man and woman. Common law wives and husbands and all LGBT couples were living illegally under DOMA, according to Mr, Carswell’s interpretation and therefore domestic violence couldn’t happen between two unmarried people.
The High Court ruled that while the state can define what constitutes marriage, cohabitation happens when two people decide to live together and therefore domestic violence can happen and is covered by law, DOMA not withstanding.
7.20.2007
A scary thought....
Dubya is having a colonoscopy. That means that while he is unconscious (for real), Dick Cheney will be in charge of the government for a couple of hours.
Somebody please...please go hide the red button so that fool can’t fire nukes at Iran. We’ve got enough trouble now. We don’t need another war front.
We don’t need expansion of the Patriot Act or suspension of more of our civil liberties.
Hell, he’s already declared himself outside government. He refuses to talk to anyone except his assistants...Is he still even talking to Dubya, except to say, “I don’t have to...I’m the VP?”
Anyone looking at us from outer space would see Dubya in the White House and think that Cheney was emperor of the USA the way he behaves.
After looking at Cheney, I can understand why his daughter feels she can be a lesbian, have a baby and not have to face the consequences that others of us have to live with daily.
Can’t Bush appoint someone else to take over...someone with common sense, common decency and an understanding that other people live in this world beside him, his family and his business friends and associates.
Somebody please...please go hide the red button so that fool can’t fire nukes at Iran. We’ve got enough trouble now. We don’t need another war front.
We don’t need expansion of the Patriot Act or suspension of more of our civil liberties.
Hell, he’s already declared himself outside government. He refuses to talk to anyone except his assistants...Is he still even talking to Dubya, except to say, “I don’t have to...I’m the VP?”
Anyone looking at us from outer space would see Dubya in the White House and think that Cheney was emperor of the USA the way he behaves.
After looking at Cheney, I can understand why his daughter feels she can be a lesbian, have a baby and not have to face the consequences that others of us have to live with daily.
Can’t Bush appoint someone else to take over...someone with common sense, common decency and an understanding that other people live in this world beside him, his family and his business friends and associates.
7.10.2007
Morality Plays
Yesterday, the NAACP buried the “N” word...literally. The organization held a funeral for the word, duplicating it’s actions of a couple of decades ago, when it buried Jim Crow.
Burying Jim Crow will prove to be the easier entombment, I think. That’s because so many of us use the “N” word when talking to each other. We only have a problem with it when white people use it.
It’s always been considered a bad word. I come from the generation where parents didn’t curse in front of the kids. And, we never, ever used the “N” word for any reason to refer to anyone else. It was a term of disrespect with the obvious racist connotations. We were taught not to denigrate ourselves because we would get enough of that when we stepped into the white professional world. Trust me, as someone who has spent her entire life being the “first black this and only female that,” there are actually hundreds of ways somebody can call you a nigger without using the word itself.
Nowadays, kids toss the word around like a water balloon and people have become desensitized to it. The problem with using it so freely is that people with no sense of history or anything else for that matter, think they can use it like we do. That’s when it becomes offensive.
As blacks we can’t be so hypocritical. If we’re going to use it, we must expect that others will too. We need to get over ourselves and really, really make the word inoffensive, much like gay and lesbians did with the word “Queer.” The LGBT community owns that word, having taken possession of it a long time ago. You can’t hurt us with it anymore. Blacks need to do the same with the “N” word. If we intend to use it, then we have to stop reacting to its use by others. Once it loses it’s shock value, then it is buried for real, not symbolically like the NAACP tried to do yesterday.
The NAACP would do better recapturing its relevance if it would go after the things that are killing our communities, like AIDS, Poverty, black on black violence, out of wedlock children, and the school dropout rate.
Remember, the old nursery rhyme....”sticks and stones can break my bones...but words will never hurt me..”
Good words to live by..
Burying Jim Crow will prove to be the easier entombment, I think. That’s because so many of us use the “N” word when talking to each other. We only have a problem with it when white people use it.
It’s always been considered a bad word. I come from the generation where parents didn’t curse in front of the kids. And, we never, ever used the “N” word for any reason to refer to anyone else. It was a term of disrespect with the obvious racist connotations. We were taught not to denigrate ourselves because we would get enough of that when we stepped into the white professional world. Trust me, as someone who has spent her entire life being the “first black this and only female that,” there are actually hundreds of ways somebody can call you a nigger without using the word itself.
Nowadays, kids toss the word around like a water balloon and people have become desensitized to it. The problem with using it so freely is that people with no sense of history or anything else for that matter, think they can use it like we do. That’s when it becomes offensive.
As blacks we can’t be so hypocritical. If we’re going to use it, we must expect that others will too. We need to get over ourselves and really, really make the word inoffensive, much like gay and lesbians did with the word “Queer.” The LGBT community owns that word, having taken possession of it a long time ago. You can’t hurt us with it anymore. Blacks need to do the same with the “N” word. If we intend to use it, then we have to stop reacting to its use by others. Once it loses it’s shock value, then it is buried for real, not symbolically like the NAACP tried to do yesterday.
The NAACP would do better recapturing its relevance if it would go after the things that are killing our communities, like AIDS, Poverty, black on black violence, out of wedlock children, and the school dropout rate.
Remember, the old nursery rhyme....”sticks and stones can break my bones...but words will never hurt me..”
Good words to live by..
7.03.2007
His World
In the wee small hours after midnight, when Dubya is out of the public eye and into his own little world under the covers, I want to know what he is smoking/drinking/snorting. I mean he’s got to be using something to maintain this Buddha-like calm he displays while standing in the midst of his self created shit storm. I haven’t seen this kind of calm exhibited since the self medicating days of the sixties. “Hey man, got any ‘ludes?”
For the past seven years he’s done stuff.....started a war, ripped up the constitution, trashed civil liberties and flooded the judicial branch with inexperienced hacks and extreme right wing politically driven judges. He’s gutted the justice department, compromised and outed our spies to our enemies. He’s lied to the American public, repeatedly. Dubya has all but erased the line that separates church and state. He’s killed scientific study and research. He’s replaced learning with testing in our schools.
His court, after first giving him the election, has now reversed Brown vs the Board of Education. Can Roe v. Wade be far behind? Ladies throw away your Manolos it’s back to bare foot and pregnant unless you have the money to circumvent the law.
His politically appointed cronies have killed the great city of New Orleans, set back women’s health initiatives, and practically done away with birth control in favor of sticking your head in the sand and hoping that no pregnancy results.
He’s thumbed his nose at the rest of the world and sits on his daddy’s yacht while the planet goes to hell in a hand basket.
How is it that this out of control, ex crack head frat boy got elected to the most powerful office on the face of the earth?
Scooter gets tried and convicted and sentenced to jail. Dubya commutes the sentence claiming his boy had been treated harshly and his family is suffering. Well, what about the family of Valerie Plame? He outed her as a spy to get back at her husband. His vindictiveness could have gotten her killed. Does he care? Apparently not.
Generations in the future are screwed because of his irresponsible fiscal policies. Does he care?
Dubya is the original bubble boy...hiding behind his calm inside his dome while his rogue vice president runs rampant, trampling our laws and system of checks and balances.
Dubya needs to share whatever he’s toking, because the rest of us are a bundle of nerves. We’re so stressed out, we don’t take vacations. We’ve got a president who tells us that except for his war on terror, the rest of the stuff is not that serious. Oh, but it is.
I want your drugs Dubya. That way I may be able to relax and share your vision. Your world must be wonderful. I need some of that virtual reality inside your bubble.
Yeah, you really need to share your stuff, man, so that we can all escape this hell on earth world that you’ve bequeathed upon us. Passing the bong, it's the American way.
For the past seven years he’s done stuff.....started a war, ripped up the constitution, trashed civil liberties and flooded the judicial branch with inexperienced hacks and extreme right wing politically driven judges. He’s gutted the justice department, compromised and outed our spies to our enemies. He’s lied to the American public, repeatedly. Dubya has all but erased the line that separates church and state. He’s killed scientific study and research. He’s replaced learning with testing in our schools.
His court, after first giving him the election, has now reversed Brown vs the Board of Education. Can Roe v. Wade be far behind? Ladies throw away your Manolos it’s back to bare foot and pregnant unless you have the money to circumvent the law.
His politically appointed cronies have killed the great city of New Orleans, set back women’s health initiatives, and practically done away with birth control in favor of sticking your head in the sand and hoping that no pregnancy results.
He’s thumbed his nose at the rest of the world and sits on his daddy’s yacht while the planet goes to hell in a hand basket.
How is it that this out of control, ex crack head frat boy got elected to the most powerful office on the face of the earth?
Scooter gets tried and convicted and sentenced to jail. Dubya commutes the sentence claiming his boy had been treated harshly and his family is suffering. Well, what about the family of Valerie Plame? He outed her as a spy to get back at her husband. His vindictiveness could have gotten her killed. Does he care? Apparently not.
Generations in the future are screwed because of his irresponsible fiscal policies. Does he care?
Dubya is the original bubble boy...hiding behind his calm inside his dome while his rogue vice president runs rampant, trampling our laws and system of checks and balances.
Dubya needs to share whatever he’s toking, because the rest of us are a bundle of nerves. We’re so stressed out, we don’t take vacations. We’ve got a president who tells us that except for his war on terror, the rest of the stuff is not that serious. Oh, but it is.
I want your drugs Dubya. That way I may be able to relax and share your vision. Your world must be wonderful. I need some of that virtual reality inside your bubble.
Yeah, you really need to share your stuff, man, so that we can all escape this hell on earth world that you’ve bequeathed upon us. Passing the bong, it's the American way.
6.29.2007
I Mania
I have to admit that I do want an iphone. I like the way it looks. I like the way it feels and most important, I can see the buttons, not that an iphone even has buttons. But at $600.00 I can wait. Besides I just renewed my old verizon contract, so I’m out of the phone market for a couple of years. By then, Apple should have worked out all the bugs in the iphone.
I already have an ipod and although I love it to death, it has bugs...millions of them. I wish I had waited to buy it, but I couldn’t resist the thought of having my entire music collection in my pocket.
Iphones make me realize that I am getting old because despite my desire to own one, I can’t believe that a telephone can be a status symbol. I’ve had my younger friends, meaning those young enough to be my grandkids, actually check out my phone to see what I choose to carry. From these conversations I have learned that the more your phone can do, or the more it costs, then the higher your status.
I’m sorry, but a phone is still a phone to me. It replaces the need to have to find a pay phone like the ones that used to populate street corners. My contract offers free phones in exchange for company loyalty. So every couple of years, I choose the most expensive phone that I can get for free. I also need to be able to read the buttons since my eyes no longer work as well as they used to. I carry this sleek black number that is web ready, bluetooth ready, mp3 equipped, and has a camera and also shoots video. Most importantly, it was free.
I’ve played with all the features, but basically, after I’m done playing, it’s still just a phone, a convenience that keeps me from having to search for one on the corner in order to reach out and touch when I need to.
Knowing me, I will eventually own an iphone. But it won’t be for a couple of years and the phone itself will probably be into it’s third or fourth generation. By then the kinks will be gone, and it won’t cost so much. And I will have a better understanding of phone as status symbol, I guess...maybe...maybe not..
I already have an ipod and although I love it to death, it has bugs...millions of them. I wish I had waited to buy it, but I couldn’t resist the thought of having my entire music collection in my pocket.
Iphones make me realize that I am getting old because despite my desire to own one, I can’t believe that a telephone can be a status symbol. I’ve had my younger friends, meaning those young enough to be my grandkids, actually check out my phone to see what I choose to carry. From these conversations I have learned that the more your phone can do, or the more it costs, then the higher your status.
I’m sorry, but a phone is still a phone to me. It replaces the need to have to find a pay phone like the ones that used to populate street corners. My contract offers free phones in exchange for company loyalty. So every couple of years, I choose the most expensive phone that I can get for free. I also need to be able to read the buttons since my eyes no longer work as well as they used to. I carry this sleek black number that is web ready, bluetooth ready, mp3 equipped, and has a camera and also shoots video. Most importantly, it was free.
I’ve played with all the features, but basically, after I’m done playing, it’s still just a phone, a convenience that keeps me from having to search for one on the corner in order to reach out and touch when I need to.
Knowing me, I will eventually own an iphone. But it won’t be for a couple of years and the phone itself will probably be into it’s third or fourth generation. By then the kinks will be gone, and it won’t cost so much. And I will have a better understanding of phone as status symbol, I guess...maybe...maybe not..
6.11.2007
America Mismanaged
Gasoline
Wow! Gasoline prices have dropped seven cents per gallon in the past week. Man! I need to fire up my 25 gallon vehicle and drive to my nearest filling station for a fill up. Look at all the money I can save! At this rate, next week I can probably afford to buy a Big Mac for lunch.
And don’t say go buy a smaller car. Some of us can’t afford to change cars like we change underwear. With the price of these alleged gas saving hybrids, it will be a long time before I purchase a newer car much less a hybrid.
Tainted Justice
Colin Powell says Gitmo should be shutdown immediately. Defense Secretary Robert Gates calls Guantanamo a “taint” on the reputation of America. Powell was the only member of the Bush Administration who was against opening the facility in the first place. Both Gates and Powell say the facility harms America’s image abroad. Does Dubya care? Is Condi listening? By the way, where is Condi these days?
Powell also apologized for his part in getting us into this civil war. He said the situation in Iraq was mismanaged from jump street and run by amateurs.
Immigration
Bush says he is going to reopen the push for immigration reform when he returns from his trip overseas. I wonder......is he just talking about our southern border with the brown people of Mexico or is he also talking about our porous northern border with pale Canada? You will recall that the TB guy was let into this country through Canada despite being on everyone’s keep out list. The border guard said TB guy “looked okay to him.” If you’ve seen him in his news appearances, TB guy looks just like all the guys in the Bush Administration as well as all the other guys who are considered masters of the universe. Others who have tried to come through Canada, like Moussoui the 9/11 would be hijacker, were stopped and arrested. What happened. Guess he didn’t “look okay.” He is certainly not a master of the universe.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend?!- CNN
We are going to give guns to the Sunnis to fight Al Quaeda in Iraq....now that looks like a plan...well thought out...Question....are we going to pull out our troops first before they get caught in an even bigger crossfire? If my memory serves me correctly, didn’t we use to arm Al Quaeda too?
Bombing Iran
Jolting Joe Lieberman wants to bomb Iran. Like our military isn’t already stretched enough. Why don’t we just go ahead and hit North Korea and China while we’re at it. Note to you war happy politicians....if you want to fight, pick up a gun and go fight, but leave the rest of us alone.
Aggressive military action is being talked up by guys in power who spent all their youth avoiding the military......Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Romney, Guiliani....to name a few.. The guys and women who have been to war don’t want to go back, with the exception being McCain.
Wow! Gasoline prices have dropped seven cents per gallon in the past week. Man! I need to fire up my 25 gallon vehicle and drive to my nearest filling station for a fill up. Look at all the money I can save! At this rate, next week I can probably afford to buy a Big Mac for lunch.
And don’t say go buy a smaller car. Some of us can’t afford to change cars like we change underwear. With the price of these alleged gas saving hybrids, it will be a long time before I purchase a newer car much less a hybrid.
Tainted Justice
Colin Powell says Gitmo should be shutdown immediately. Defense Secretary Robert Gates calls Guantanamo a “taint” on the reputation of America. Powell was the only member of the Bush Administration who was against opening the facility in the first place. Both Gates and Powell say the facility harms America’s image abroad. Does Dubya care? Is Condi listening? By the way, where is Condi these days?
Powell also apologized for his part in getting us into this civil war. He said the situation in Iraq was mismanaged from jump street and run by amateurs.
Immigration
Bush says he is going to reopen the push for immigration reform when he returns from his trip overseas. I wonder......is he just talking about our southern border with the brown people of Mexico or is he also talking about our porous northern border with pale Canada? You will recall that the TB guy was let into this country through Canada despite being on everyone’s keep out list. The border guard said TB guy “looked okay to him.” If you’ve seen him in his news appearances, TB guy looks just like all the guys in the Bush Administration as well as all the other guys who are considered masters of the universe. Others who have tried to come through Canada, like Moussoui the 9/11 would be hijacker, were stopped and arrested. What happened. Guess he didn’t “look okay.” He is certainly not a master of the universe.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend?!- CNN
We are going to give guns to the Sunnis to fight Al Quaeda in Iraq....now that looks like a plan...well thought out...Question....are we going to pull out our troops first before they get caught in an even bigger crossfire? If my memory serves me correctly, didn’t we use to arm Al Quaeda too?
Bombing Iran
Jolting Joe Lieberman wants to bomb Iran. Like our military isn’t already stretched enough. Why don’t we just go ahead and hit North Korea and China while we’re at it. Note to you war happy politicians....if you want to fight, pick up a gun and go fight, but leave the rest of us alone.
Aggressive military action is being talked up by guys in power who spent all their youth avoiding the military......Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Romney, Guiliani....to name a few.. The guys and women who have been to war don’t want to go back, with the exception being McCain.
6.07.2007
Photo Op Terrorism and the Politics of Fearmongering
First came the Liberty City Old School Knuckleheads, then the Fort Dix Six. Now we’ve got the Islamic Reggae Boys, apparently led by a sometimes homeless drug addict.
These guys are terrorists, bent on bringing down America? Please!
The first group were old school militants still living in the sixties with no guns, no cars and no cash. Based on that scenario, they couldn’t land a date these days much less bring down a government. They marched around their warehouse quoting the Last Poets and watching Bruce Lee movies and probably talked a lot of trash that some stupid government informant thought sounded like plotting and turned them in. Now they’ve disappeared into the Just-Us system.
The Fort Dix Six at least look the part, meaning they fit the profile of what a terrorist might look like, if you’re stupid and racist and buy the Homeland Security B.S...you know the type, dark skinned, swarthy, skull cap wearing, bearded, middle eastern looking. But c’mon the feds would have us believe that these men hatched a plot to dress up as pizza deliverymen, go to a full scale military base and shoot up and kill as many soldiers as possible, then escape to tell about it. Further, they recorded their plot on DVD and took it to a drug store for processing?
Now we’ve got the Reggae boys from Trinidad plot. Like the Knuckleheads, these guys had no money, no vehicles and no guns, explosives or nuclear bombs. They talked a lot to a fed informant who was a drug addict working his way into the witness protection program and got turned in to the police, probably after the all ganja was gone. These guys were talking about blowing up JFK airport. The plot announced by one of those political hack attorney generals appointed during Gonzo gate. Airlines security experts from around the world are laughing their collective asses off at this one.
In light of who’s being arrested, I’m scared to death our government couldn’t identify a real terrorist if Osama Bin Laden, himself, walked up to the front door of the White House, pulling his dialysis machine behind him, and said, “I’m here to blow up your country, now arrest me.”
Even the 24 arrested in England last year, were picked up at the behest of our government. The Brits said most of the guys were harmless and in fact, 22 of them were let go a couple of days after the news conference detailing their arrests.
We’re trapped in a cycle of fear. Every time one of these types of arrests is made, there is major news coverage with some government talking head, usually Bush or our invisible vice president, telling us to “be afraid, be very afraid.”
When is the news media in this country going to wake up and realize it’s been had. Not everything is news or news worthy, and most of what is coming from this administration is just noise to camouflage the really bad stuff that they’re doing.
We, as a people, have paid millions and billions of dollars for a state of the art security system to protect our country, while our government is still using tactics dreamed up in the days of civil unrest back in the sixties. No wonder they keep stumbling over these old school militants. The real terrorists are apparently cloaked in 21st century stealth, and don’t register on old school radar.
Yes, we need to be vigilant. Yes, we need security. But not this. With what’s going on, it seems our government uses Keystone Cop movies as training films. If we’re going to go old school, then let’s bring back Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones. At least they knew how to find and arrest the real bad guys.
These guys are terrorists, bent on bringing down America? Please!
The first group were old school militants still living in the sixties with no guns, no cars and no cash. Based on that scenario, they couldn’t land a date these days much less bring down a government. They marched around their warehouse quoting the Last Poets and watching Bruce Lee movies and probably talked a lot of trash that some stupid government informant thought sounded like plotting and turned them in. Now they’ve disappeared into the Just-Us system.
The Fort Dix Six at least look the part, meaning they fit the profile of what a terrorist might look like, if you’re stupid and racist and buy the Homeland Security B.S...you know the type, dark skinned, swarthy, skull cap wearing, bearded, middle eastern looking. But c’mon the feds would have us believe that these men hatched a plot to dress up as pizza deliverymen, go to a full scale military base and shoot up and kill as many soldiers as possible, then escape to tell about it. Further, they recorded their plot on DVD and took it to a drug store for processing?
Now we’ve got the Reggae boys from Trinidad plot. Like the Knuckleheads, these guys had no money, no vehicles and no guns, explosives or nuclear bombs. They talked a lot to a fed informant who was a drug addict working his way into the witness protection program and got turned in to the police, probably after the all ganja was gone. These guys were talking about blowing up JFK airport. The plot announced by one of those political hack attorney generals appointed during Gonzo gate. Airlines security experts from around the world are laughing their collective asses off at this one.
In light of who’s being arrested, I’m scared to death our government couldn’t identify a real terrorist if Osama Bin Laden, himself, walked up to the front door of the White House, pulling his dialysis machine behind him, and said, “I’m here to blow up your country, now arrest me.”
Even the 24 arrested in England last year, were picked up at the behest of our government. The Brits said most of the guys were harmless and in fact, 22 of them were let go a couple of days after the news conference detailing their arrests.
We’re trapped in a cycle of fear. Every time one of these types of arrests is made, there is major news coverage with some government talking head, usually Bush or our invisible vice president, telling us to “be afraid, be very afraid.”
When is the news media in this country going to wake up and realize it’s been had. Not everything is news or news worthy, and most of what is coming from this administration is just noise to camouflage the really bad stuff that they’re doing.
We, as a people, have paid millions and billions of dollars for a state of the art security system to protect our country, while our government is still using tactics dreamed up in the days of civil unrest back in the sixties. No wonder they keep stumbling over these old school militants. The real terrorists are apparently cloaked in 21st century stealth, and don’t register on old school radar.
Yes, we need to be vigilant. Yes, we need security. But not this. With what’s going on, it seems our government uses Keystone Cop movies as training films. If we’re going to go old school, then let’s bring back Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones. At least they knew how to find and arrest the real bad guys.
6.04.2007
Hostage II
I left the news world back in 1999. I was burned out and quite frankly, didn’t like the turn away from “real news” and toward “infotainment,” which was taking place in the industry. Now, if you miss the first four minutes of the newscast, you’ve essentially missed the newscast. It’s over, except for the recap in the closing 30 seconds. The rest of the time is taken up with features, gossip and weather.
But even though I got out physically, my desire to know has never left. And up until a few months ago I still managed to start my day reading several newspapers (the internet makes it easy). I still read several magazines on both sides of the current issues, in my desire to find all sides of the issues.
I write a blog that most of the time reflects what I’ve read in the newspapers, magazines or heard on CNN or MSNBC. Still can’t stand to watch FOX. It drives me nuts. I ended my career working for the local Fox and a news director who thought that the perfect reporter was one who left the station with prescripted questions written by her or the assignment desk and stuck to script while doing the interview. She actually voiced that opinion in the daily news meeting. I told her point blank that, that would be the day I quit, and it was. She got fired shortly after I quit. It was okay, I needed a change....I needed to write without the constrictions of alleged news gathering, that was no longer happening. But I still carried on my personal search for information...reading and reading and writing and writing, as if I never left the business.
Lately, for the first time in my adult life, I’ve been tuned out of the noise. I mean really tuned out...no newspapers, cancelled my magazine subscriptions, watched less TV news, and I don’t feel all that guilty about unplugging. Haven’t been writing either. I do feel twinges of guilt when I don’t update my blog.
But, hell, I have to remind myself that I created the blog for me. Not for anyone else. I created it to keep in practice with my writing. If I don’t use it, I lose it, understand?
I love to write, it’s just that by creating the blog, I felt an obligation to write every single day, every time I had a thought. That’s good, but there are other things to my life. I play golf. I love to play golf. If I had discovered the game earlier in my life, I might have tried to be a pro. I love being outside, especially this time of year. I have a lawn that needs tending. I have flowers that need love. I have dogs that need exercise. I have me, that needs exercise. I have a car that needs washing. I have a house that needs fixing. I have travel plans to make and trips to take. I need to check out the local flea markets. I have friends and lovers that I need to see. I have wine that needs drinking and food that needs eating.
I have a life outside of my blog and I should never, ever feel guilty about living.
Everything I do and experience comes out in my writing. It will eventually come out in my blog...just not everyday. Maybe not every two or three days. But it will come out, when it’s ready.
So I will get back to politics and the war and having opinions about something. But only when I feel it. In my own time, period.
But even though I got out physically, my desire to know has never left. And up until a few months ago I still managed to start my day reading several newspapers (the internet makes it easy). I still read several magazines on both sides of the current issues, in my desire to find all sides of the issues.
I write a blog that most of the time reflects what I’ve read in the newspapers, magazines or heard on CNN or MSNBC. Still can’t stand to watch FOX. It drives me nuts. I ended my career working for the local Fox and a news director who thought that the perfect reporter was one who left the station with prescripted questions written by her or the assignment desk and stuck to script while doing the interview. She actually voiced that opinion in the daily news meeting. I told her point blank that, that would be the day I quit, and it was. She got fired shortly after I quit. It was okay, I needed a change....I needed to write without the constrictions of alleged news gathering, that was no longer happening. But I still carried on my personal search for information...reading and reading and writing and writing, as if I never left the business.
Lately, for the first time in my adult life, I’ve been tuned out of the noise. I mean really tuned out...no newspapers, cancelled my magazine subscriptions, watched less TV news, and I don’t feel all that guilty about unplugging. Haven’t been writing either. I do feel twinges of guilt when I don’t update my blog.
But, hell, I have to remind myself that I created the blog for me. Not for anyone else. I created it to keep in practice with my writing. If I don’t use it, I lose it, understand?
I love to write, it’s just that by creating the blog, I felt an obligation to write every single day, every time I had a thought. That’s good, but there are other things to my life. I play golf. I love to play golf. If I had discovered the game earlier in my life, I might have tried to be a pro. I love being outside, especially this time of year. I have a lawn that needs tending. I have flowers that need love. I have dogs that need exercise. I have me, that needs exercise. I have a car that needs washing. I have a house that needs fixing. I have travel plans to make and trips to take. I need to check out the local flea markets. I have friends and lovers that I need to see. I have wine that needs drinking and food that needs eating.
I have a life outside of my blog and I should never, ever feel guilty about living.
Everything I do and experience comes out in my writing. It will eventually come out in my blog...just not everyday. Maybe not every two or three days. But it will come out, when it’s ready.
So I will get back to politics and the war and having opinions about something. But only when I feel it. In my own time, period.
5.23.2007
Hostage
One of the many reasons that I loved living in Chicago was that a car was truly a luxury rather than a necessity. I could get anywhere I wanted without having to jump into a vehicle, unless it was public transportation. The buses and trains ran 24/7, 365. I could walk out my door, step to the curb and throw my hand up to signal any of the several taxis passing by. Three large grocery stores were within three blocks, and they delivered. I would walk to the store, choose my food, pay for it, and then tell the cashier where I lived. My groceries arrived within the hour with the eggs not broken.
There were breakfast places for brunch, lunch places, dinner places, bars to drink and watch sports, dance clubs, work out clubs, all within walking distance. And I mean walking distance without breaking sweat or getting leg cramps from over exertion. Since I lived on Lakeshore Drive, I had 22 miles of park, including a golf course right across the street. Wrigley Field was four blocks west. I could open my windows and hear the late Harry Carey sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” during the seventh inning stretch. The only reason I drove was to visit my sister who lived in the burbs. When I needed to fly, which was weekly, I took the train to O’HARE.
All of these memories came flooding back with the news that a gallon of gasoline is $3.49 at my neighborhood gas station today. I no longer live in Chicago. I now live in Cincinnati Ohio, and I'm old enough to remember a gasoline price war between stations in Mt Healthy, where a gallon cost 28-cents. Cincinnati is a city where a car is a must have, even at today's prices.
Urban sprawl is a nice term for it. Usually good restaurants, good theaters and marvelous clubs inhabit the heart of the city. Now, the best places to eat are right across the river, in Kentucky or out in the burbs of West Chester. The purple people bridge is pedestrian friendly, for those wanting to cross the river, but you need a car to get to the bridge. Here, going clubbing usually means driving to Columbus or Indianapolis. As for getting your groceries delivered intact, well good luck. I consider myself lucky if there is a bagger at the checkout.
Since I grew up in Cincinnati, I was well aware of its cultural limitations for the over 25 set of young adults, both gay and straight. If I want to shop, eat or go to the park, I drive. Everyone has a car. Many people have two or three in case one breaks down. Boycotting rising gas prices will not happen here because Cincinnati, like many other former industrial cities of the Midwest, is not people or user friendly. The Midwest is held hostage by the whims of OPEC.
If you don’t have a car, you better have a friend who has one. The wait between buses is about an hour. Getting a bus late at night is pretty impossible. Looking for a taxi? Don’t go to the curb. Dig out your cell phone and call, it’ll be there in about 20 minutes. Elevated trains? Forget about it!
I’ve been looking at Vespas lately as a means of going green. There is a dealership right around the corner. I like the little European scooters. I wouldn’t think twice about buying one, if I still lived in Europe. But here in Cincinnati, I hesitate because I figure the first time I try to ride it, I’ll be run over by somebody in a big ass SUV hurrying to a radio sponsored gasoline sale.
There were breakfast places for brunch, lunch places, dinner places, bars to drink and watch sports, dance clubs, work out clubs, all within walking distance. And I mean walking distance without breaking sweat or getting leg cramps from over exertion. Since I lived on Lakeshore Drive, I had 22 miles of park, including a golf course right across the street. Wrigley Field was four blocks west. I could open my windows and hear the late Harry Carey sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” during the seventh inning stretch. The only reason I drove was to visit my sister who lived in the burbs. When I needed to fly, which was weekly, I took the train to O’HARE.
All of these memories came flooding back with the news that a gallon of gasoline is $3.49 at my neighborhood gas station today. I no longer live in Chicago. I now live in Cincinnati Ohio, and I'm old enough to remember a gasoline price war between stations in Mt Healthy, where a gallon cost 28-cents. Cincinnati is a city where a car is a must have, even at today's prices.
Urban sprawl is a nice term for it. Usually good restaurants, good theaters and marvelous clubs inhabit the heart of the city. Now, the best places to eat are right across the river, in Kentucky or out in the burbs of West Chester. The purple people bridge is pedestrian friendly, for those wanting to cross the river, but you need a car to get to the bridge. Here, going clubbing usually means driving to Columbus or Indianapolis. As for getting your groceries delivered intact, well good luck. I consider myself lucky if there is a bagger at the checkout.
Since I grew up in Cincinnati, I was well aware of its cultural limitations for the over 25 set of young adults, both gay and straight. If I want to shop, eat or go to the park, I drive. Everyone has a car. Many people have two or three in case one breaks down. Boycotting rising gas prices will not happen here because Cincinnati, like many other former industrial cities of the Midwest, is not people or user friendly. The Midwest is held hostage by the whims of OPEC.
If you don’t have a car, you better have a friend who has one. The wait between buses is about an hour. Getting a bus late at night is pretty impossible. Looking for a taxi? Don’t go to the curb. Dig out your cell phone and call, it’ll be there in about 20 minutes. Elevated trains? Forget about it!
I’ve been looking at Vespas lately as a means of going green. There is a dealership right around the corner. I like the little European scooters. I wouldn’t think twice about buying one, if I still lived in Europe. But here in Cincinnati, I hesitate because I figure the first time I try to ride it, I’ll be run over by somebody in a big ass SUV hurrying to a radio sponsored gasoline sale.
5.16.2007
The Buck Doesn’t Stop Here
I guess Harry Truman is doing flip flops in his grave over this administration. The straight talking, straight shooting, honest man from Missouri, would never have allowed the White House to be swallowed up by the cloud of mendacity that seeps from every crack of that building these days.
We have a president who “doesn’t recall, can’t remember, blames congress and the democrats, and anybody else he can think of for the current morass.” Now he has appointed a War Czar to handle the quagmire in the middle east.
I thought the president was always the “war czar.” Dubya was the boss in the run up to the war after 9/11. He was the head of state when it came to “mission accomplished” on the flight deck in front of the troops. Why step away now. Why doesn’t the buck stop at Dubya’s desk as it has with every other president we’ve had to this point?
I guess it’s like everything else about this president..paint a big picture, pose for the photo op, and let everyone else fill in the details, no matter how fuzzy or unethical.
*********
Question......Does AG Gonzales ever pay attention to the words coming out of his mouth? He’s got his tongue so far up Dubya’s butt, it’s a wonder if he will ever come clean. Talk about loyalty to the family, and I’m not talking Sopranos here. Maybe the feds need to pay closer attention to what goes on inside la familia in Maine.
**********
OMG! Paris is traumatized about going to jail. Well, join the club sista girl, me too! I don’t think anyone likes being locked up. But MOST of us do the right thing and stay away from jail and police officers with badges and guns. We po folk don’t call em pigs for nothing. We don’t have millions of dollars, a glitzy name or high priced attorneys to protect us. We have to do the right thing or pay the price. Because we know that if there is anything the police like better than beating up poor people...it’s locking up rich people who think they’re above the law. Buy a vowel and get a clue, girlfriend, and please, please, go sit down and pretend to be invisible.
**********
Yolanda King, eldest daughter of Martin Luther King, has passed away. Gone too soon. Rest in peace.
*********
The Reverend Jerry Falwell has passed on too. To quote the late great Moms Mabley...”don’t say nothin’ about the dead, unless you can say somethin’ good.....he’s dead....good!”
We have a president who “doesn’t recall, can’t remember, blames congress and the democrats, and anybody else he can think of for the current morass.” Now he has appointed a War Czar to handle the quagmire in the middle east.
I thought the president was always the “war czar.” Dubya was the boss in the run up to the war after 9/11. He was the head of state when it came to “mission accomplished” on the flight deck in front of the troops. Why step away now. Why doesn’t the buck stop at Dubya’s desk as it has with every other president we’ve had to this point?
I guess it’s like everything else about this president..paint a big picture, pose for the photo op, and let everyone else fill in the details, no matter how fuzzy or unethical.
*********
Question......Does AG Gonzales ever pay attention to the words coming out of his mouth? He’s got his tongue so far up Dubya’s butt, it’s a wonder if he will ever come clean. Talk about loyalty to the family, and I’m not talking Sopranos here. Maybe the feds need to pay closer attention to what goes on inside la familia in Maine.
**********
OMG! Paris is traumatized about going to jail. Well, join the club sista girl, me too! I don’t think anyone likes being locked up. But MOST of us do the right thing and stay away from jail and police officers with badges and guns. We po folk don’t call em pigs for nothing. We don’t have millions of dollars, a glitzy name or high priced attorneys to protect us. We have to do the right thing or pay the price. Because we know that if there is anything the police like better than beating up poor people...it’s locking up rich people who think they’re above the law. Buy a vowel and get a clue, girlfriend, and please, please, go sit down and pretend to be invisible.
**********
Yolanda King, eldest daughter of Martin Luther King, has passed away. Gone too soon. Rest in peace.
*********
The Reverend Jerry Falwell has passed on too. To quote the late great Moms Mabley...”don’t say nothin’ about the dead, unless you can say somethin’ good.....he’s dead....good!”
5.10.2007
The Ballad of Jeff and OJ
Big bad restauranteur Jeff Ruby sidled up to big bad former football player OJ Simpson and told him to get out of his restaurant. It happened in Louisville this past derby weekend. Sounds like a scene out of the movie HIGH NOON. Ruby in the white hat confronted the accused-murderer-judged-not guilty, black hat wearing Simpson and reportedly said, “I’m not going to serve you!” And as the story goes, OJ meekly gathered his party of twelve, tucked his tail between his legs and left the premises amid a standing ovation for the bravado of the seemingly heroic Jeff Ruby.
Today we hear from Simpson’s attorney that the eviction was for racial reasons only and that OJ may sue. Ruby’s retort is that he was merely seeking some justice for Ron Goldman’s family.
I have mixed feelings about this alleged incident. Jeff Ruby owns many restaurants in and around my city. In the black community his rep is a bit tarnished. Seems every time there is a “black” event downtown, like the Jazz festival or black family reunion, Mr Ruby is known for closing his restaurants to take “inventory” or “vacation.” He has even been picketed for such actions in past years. He always denies the allegations, because “some of his best friends are.......” He does know a lot of black athletes and in other times, Ruby and Simpson would be photo op buddies, with Simpson gifted with tab at all Ruby establishments.
But if the closing incidents had happened only once, I would say, well, maybe coincidence, bad timing on the part of the restaurant. After all, what businessman closes his doors to making money? But it keeps happening and he is not the only one downtown who reacts like that. But they say, they’re not racist, just, well...I don’t know how they alibi themselves. I don’t patronize people who obviously don’t want my money.
Anyway, back to OJ. I am totally convinced he killed his ex-wife. He is reprehensible. I don’t understand how he could even have an entourage of twelve people who want to have dinner with him. I wouldn’t want him in my restaurant either. But I would serve him if he showed up. He was found not guilty. He is protected by double jeopardy laws.
Ruby was grandstanding. He saw a chance to grab the spotlight and took it. He got lots of free publicity for his restaurants. At Simpson’s expense, he ends up looking like a good guy, his feet of clay quietly hidden under the table.
Today we hear from Simpson’s attorney that the eviction was for racial reasons only and that OJ may sue. Ruby’s retort is that he was merely seeking some justice for Ron Goldman’s family.
I have mixed feelings about this alleged incident. Jeff Ruby owns many restaurants in and around my city. In the black community his rep is a bit tarnished. Seems every time there is a “black” event downtown, like the Jazz festival or black family reunion, Mr Ruby is known for closing his restaurants to take “inventory” or “vacation.” He has even been picketed for such actions in past years. He always denies the allegations, because “some of his best friends are.......” He does know a lot of black athletes and in other times, Ruby and Simpson would be photo op buddies, with Simpson gifted with tab at all Ruby establishments.
But if the closing incidents had happened only once, I would say, well, maybe coincidence, bad timing on the part of the restaurant. After all, what businessman closes his doors to making money? But it keeps happening and he is not the only one downtown who reacts like that. But they say, they’re not racist, just, well...I don’t know how they alibi themselves. I don’t patronize people who obviously don’t want my money.
Anyway, back to OJ. I am totally convinced he killed his ex-wife. He is reprehensible. I don’t understand how he could even have an entourage of twelve people who want to have dinner with him. I wouldn’t want him in my restaurant either. But I would serve him if he showed up. He was found not guilty. He is protected by double jeopardy laws.
Ruby was grandstanding. He saw a chance to grab the spotlight and took it. He got lots of free publicity for his restaurants. At Simpson’s expense, he ends up looking like a good guy, his feet of clay quietly hidden under the table.
5.03.2007
Ten Men Talking
Well, the first GOP “debate” is over and it went well:
If you deny evolution,
if you think Ronny Ray-gun was the best president, ever, and refuse to criticize Bush, or other members of his evil cabal,
think gays and lesbians are abomination,
think stem cell research is murder,
don’t think women have enough brains to make good decisions when it comes to their own bodies,
Think Alito and Roberts will do great things from the Supreme Court bench,
think congress has a right to mess in private lives like what happened with Terri Shiavo,
continue to equate the Iraq quagmire with a war on terror,
are willing to go to war with Iran tomorrow, despite the messes in Iraq and Afghanistan,
and feel this administration is doing a good job..
They all hate Hillary and one of them (sorry, they all look alike) told Joe Scarborough that every man on stage would make a better president than Hillary Clinton. The answer also shows that she is the one they fear the most. They all ranted against Hillary health care, circa early 90's. They all took pot shots at Bill and most of them voted to impeach him. They all accused Democrats of being soft on defense.
If Hillary gets the nomination, I’m willing to bet that it will be a very negative campaign. Men turn into "mean girls" and get bitchy, when challenged by women, we all know that.
Did anyone stand out.....Mitt Romney looked presidential...but it was that idealized, calculated look of what a president should look like. Listening to him....he’s got the Joe Biden slime factor going on.
Rudy, Rudy, Rudy....got buried in the shuffle. He didn’t stand out or have a chance to stand out. He was trying to be everything to everyone. It’s not working. He doesn’t seem really interested in the job. I think he likes campaigning as long as it holds his interest, nothing more.
And if the GOP hands Rudy the nomination it will illustrate just how hypocritical republicans are when it comes to making moral judgements. Rudy’s so tainted, he should be a democrat.
John McCain....tried too hard. I think the parade has passed him by and he can’t catch up.
As for the rest of them, well, we needed some comic relief....I found myself wishing for Newt or Fred or even Arnold to jump on stage..
If you deny evolution,
if you think Ronny Ray-gun was the best president, ever, and refuse to criticize Bush, or other members of his evil cabal,
think gays and lesbians are abomination,
think stem cell research is murder,
don’t think women have enough brains to make good decisions when it comes to their own bodies,
Think Alito and Roberts will do great things from the Supreme Court bench,
think congress has a right to mess in private lives like what happened with Terri Shiavo,
continue to equate the Iraq quagmire with a war on terror,
are willing to go to war with Iran tomorrow, despite the messes in Iraq and Afghanistan,
and feel this administration is doing a good job..
They all hate Hillary and one of them (sorry, they all look alike) told Joe Scarborough that every man on stage would make a better president than Hillary Clinton. The answer also shows that she is the one they fear the most. They all ranted against Hillary health care, circa early 90's. They all took pot shots at Bill and most of them voted to impeach him. They all accused Democrats of being soft on defense.
If Hillary gets the nomination, I’m willing to bet that it will be a very negative campaign. Men turn into "mean girls" and get bitchy, when challenged by women, we all know that.
Did anyone stand out.....Mitt Romney looked presidential...but it was that idealized, calculated look of what a president should look like. Listening to him....he’s got the Joe Biden slime factor going on.
Rudy, Rudy, Rudy....got buried in the shuffle. He didn’t stand out or have a chance to stand out. He was trying to be everything to everyone. It’s not working. He doesn’t seem really interested in the job. I think he likes campaigning as long as it holds his interest, nothing more.
And if the GOP hands Rudy the nomination it will illustrate just how hypocritical republicans are when it comes to making moral judgements. Rudy’s so tainted, he should be a democrat.
John McCain....tried too hard. I think the parade has passed him by and he can’t catch up.
As for the rest of them, well, we needed some comic relief....I found myself wishing for Newt or Fred or even Arnold to jump on stage..
4.30.2007
Yep, Nothing’s Changed
The Justice Department quietly released a report, Sunday, confirming once again what we minorities already know about law enforcement in this country. Echoing a 2002 report, the Just-us department determined that police are more likely to search, arrest or to use force against minority drivers than against whites.
The popular term for this today is “driving while black” or DWB, you’ve heard the term already, I’m sure. Supporters of the study were quick to point out that other things like “driver temperament” or behavior toward police were not taken into consideration. So, what are they saying....blacks and Hispanics are not polite enough or docile enough when approached by cops?
While recognizing the problem, Just-us doesn’t offer any solutions.
At least this time they issued a press release....back in 2002, they dropped it like it was hot and let it lay there until somebody noticed.
******
Karma smackdown
The ruling party in DC gets another karma smackdown when a DC madam goes to court today to answer prostitution charges. Seems some of the names in her little black book are also listed on the employee log at the White House. At least one guy has already resigned. Another guy is said to be the one who came up with the term “shock and awe” for the invasion of Iraq.
Looks like the GOP moral compass is broken again.
*********
Veto
Did you know that when Dubya vetoes the Iraq spending bill, he will also veto the minimum wage hike? The wage hike is a part of that funding bill.
*********
Update on American Casualties
3350 since the “war” began
3211 since “mission accomplished”
24,912 official wounded
100,000 estimated actually wounded
No numbers on Iraqi civilians
The popular term for this today is “driving while black” or DWB, you’ve heard the term already, I’m sure. Supporters of the study were quick to point out that other things like “driver temperament” or behavior toward police were not taken into consideration. So, what are they saying....blacks and Hispanics are not polite enough or docile enough when approached by cops?
While recognizing the problem, Just-us doesn’t offer any solutions.
At least this time they issued a press release....back in 2002, they dropped it like it was hot and let it lay there until somebody noticed.
******
Karma smackdown
The ruling party in DC gets another karma smackdown when a DC madam goes to court today to answer prostitution charges. Seems some of the names in her little black book are also listed on the employee log at the White House. At least one guy has already resigned. Another guy is said to be the one who came up with the term “shock and awe” for the invasion of Iraq.
Looks like the GOP moral compass is broken again.
*********
Veto
Did you know that when Dubya vetoes the Iraq spending bill, he will also veto the minimum wage hike? The wage hike is a part of that funding bill.
*********
Update on American Casualties
3350 since the “war” began
3211 since “mission accomplished”
24,912 official wounded
100,000 estimated actually wounded
No numbers on Iraqi civilians
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