The Rape of Trayvon Martin

One month away from the three ring circus that will be George Zimmerman's trial for the murder of 17 year old Trayvon Martin, the public assassination and rape of the young victim has jumped into full gear.

Zimmerman's defense attorneys have released stuff found on Martin's cell phone, pictures and texts depicting the now snuffed out life of a kid doing kid stuff, who didn't know he was gonna die. He wasn't walking around a ghetto. He was walking around his father's probably predominately white neighborhood, going to the store and back. There were no gangs, no gang-bangers. No reason for a reasonably street savvy kid to worry about his own safety. He wasn't doing anything except talking to a girl on his phone. How dangerous can that be?

The defense calls the pictures released, evidence in the pending case that shows their client Zimmerman is the victim here. The pictures show Trayvon with gold grill. They show a marijuana plant. They show Trayvon with his friends. One pic even shows a gun. Since Martin wasn't in the pic with the gun, or holding the gun, it is questionable whether the picture even came from Trayvon's phone. Even if it did, he's a kid and kids download the damned things from the internet to keep and show to their friends. Funny how stuff like this never seems to affect white kids, even after they kill 20 or 30 people. 

Zimmerman's defense team is still relying on that ages old American defense of “little white guy defending himself against attacking big black hoodie wearing ghetto kid.” This, despite telling the courts that it would not seek immunity under the “stand your ground” defense following public outcry against those bogus laws, put on the books for one reason and one reason only, and that is to allow white men with guns to shoot people because they want to, when they want to. Nobody else, not black men, not black women, not even white women have successfully been able to use the stand your ground defense and thereby evade prison. Zimmerman ran into trouble as soon as he invoked it. He lives like a white man, but was swiftly reminded of his recent immigrant roots, so can't really claim master of the universe immunity/privilege like a “real” white guy. He's a bit too brown toned for that.

Zimmerman's defense can't stand on the facts of the case because Zimmerman precipitated the incident where he killed an unarmed kid after police told him via dispatch to leave Martin alone. Zimmerman brought the gun, got into a fight and killed the youth in cold blood just feet from his father's house.

So now the only option seems to be a public rape, just like what happens to women who report sexual assaults and black men/women/youth in the USA. It's never the assailant who is tried in court. It is always the victim put on trial, raped repeatedly with questions about past acts having no bearing on the incident in question, and Trayvon Martin is no exception. A recent case in point, Charles Ramsey of Cleveland. All he did was rescue three kidnapped women held for 10 years and w-Within 24 hours every news organization was reporting on his past bad acts, as if to say he's not a good guy. He's not the hero that everybody thinks he is.  Retried in the court of public opinion until folks got mad about it.

The pictures and what they depict, don't matter. They are not evidence about the incident in question. They are being held up and waved around only to say “look, George Zimmerman killed a bad guy, would you want him in your neighborhood, talking on the phone to your daughter?” Classic fall back defense of the bigoted in America when they know they were in the wrong.

What troubles me is that more often than not, it still works in Amerikkka. It remains to be seen if the judge will actually allow them into evidence given the notoriety of the case.

Martin was a black kid walking home, doing what he was supposed to do, he was accosted by Zimmerman, an arrogant prick with a gun who got his jollies driving around his neighborhood harassing people who “didn't fit” in with his perception of who should be there.

So what if they fought. So what if Zimmerman got a bloody nose. So what...

Trayvon Martin lost his 17 year old life doing what he was supposed to do. Doing what his parents had taught him to do for a change. He was 17, not an angel. The kid was walking home when he was jumped and shot for no reason by a white man with a gun.

Playing the race card, am I? Damn right, because otherwise, we wouldn't be having this conversation. If anyone other than the little white guy police wannabe George Zimmerman had pulled the trigger on a black hoodie wearing kid named Trayvon Martin on that fateful night, they would still be in jail or already subjected to trial and convicted and awaiting sentence, at the very least.

An Open Letter to President Obama on the Matter of Assata Shakur

Dear Mr. President,

First of all, let me congratulate you on your massive re election win back in November. I voted for you and am proud to have done so. However, I am troubled by the recent act by your administration of placing Assata Shakur, the former Joanne Chesimard, on the most wanted domestic terrorist list. To be perfectly honest, one of my problems with you, Mr. President, is that I've never felt comfortable trusting you to handle the problems of Black America, and this move against Shakur illustrates my point.

Do you understand that this one act has the effect of retroactively criminalizing the very movement that made your ascent to the White House possible? Do you understand the historic stain that you have allowed your Justice Department to paint all over the Black community?

With one fell swoop you have labeled everyone, from Dr. Martin Luther King on down to me as a domestic terrorist, and proclaimed our demands for equality and freedom from Jim Crow back in the day as nothing more than acts of terrorism against the United States. We're not Terrorists, Mr. President. We are Americans. Americans who have routinely and systematically been excluded from the melting pot that America proclaims itself to be.

The announcement by the Police and Federal officials in New Jersey this week, called the continued hunt for Shakur an open wound dating back some 40 years. Well what about the open wounds inflicted by COINTELPRO on Black people, Mr. President. Shakur is a classic example of what this covert government agency inflicted on my people ( not sure if they're yours) during the 60's, 70's and 80's. There was no mention of governmental complicity during the news conference. Did you think that all of us who might remember had died off or maybe decided to stay quiet since we're older now?

We're older, Mr. President, but we haven't gone away, primarily because despite working our asses off to see you live in the White House, things haven't gotten any better for us in the past few years. Some of that is conservative bigoty, but much of it is you, Mr. President. We're still not living in full economic, non racist harmonic American equality. The American dream has yet to roll down my street. Not even with you in charge of the White House and your designate Eric Holder in control of the Just-us department. No I didn't misspell Justice, Mr. President. Real Black people know that it's always been Justice for them and Just-us for us.

I keep waiting for you to take a stand for Black people, Mr. President. I keep waiting for you to find some empathy for those who look like you look. You tell the world that you're minority. You make jokes about it. You get mad when someone says otherwise. And lord knows you take enough crap from even the minor masters of the universe for appearing to be Black.

Trouble is, Mr. President, you don't even feel Black to me. You've got the cool Black factor working. You do look good in your Ray Bans as you step out of your armored Escalade. But when it comes to deep down understanding, you are seriously lacking in knowledge, passion and feeling for what it is to be a Black man in America. Your election did not come close to making America post racial. How many times does some white guy have to question your intelligence before you get mad enough to realize that.

I just don't get how you and Eric Holder could miss the incredible symbolism attached to making Assata Shakur a domesticc terrorist. You may as well have gone to Angela Davis' house, kicked down her door, and slapped cuffs on her saying double jeopardy is no longer in force. Same difference.

Amid your fight for gays and lesbians and immigrants and Latinos, your administration just told all of Black America that we don't count, and that we never counted. Even if you really feel that way, I personally thought you were smarter than that. Hell, I've been waiting for five years for some sign that you were smarter than you appear. But then again, some of the dumbest people that I know personally are academic geniuses, sporting all the book learning in the world yet not a lick of common sense.

I personally thought that you were strong enough to resist the allure and overwhelming addiction of power that comes with the Oval Office. I was wrong, apparently. You're so into the power that you've chosen to make the power grab retroactive. Our civil liberties are being wiped out. Not by the man who created the law, but by the man, you, who succeeded him.

I keep waiting for you to shed tears for Black America, Mr. President, because it is disappearing before your eyes. I keep waiting for you to choke up over the very visible inequities still written into the social system that controls American lives.

But the act of making Assata Shakur a domestic terrorist most wanted means I'm going to be waiting a long time for real black understanding coming from the White House.

You already know the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Well it's a good thing you can't run for a third term, because I can't in all honesty support someone who continues to work against me and my community to its detriment. That is insanity and I'm promise you, I am not crazy. I know when to quit.

And I'm done....

Respectfully yours,

Assata Shakur a Domestic Terrorist? What in Fresh Hell is This!

By definition, Domestic Terrorism is violence committed to cause chaos and death inside your own country against your own people.

It is directed haphazardly against anonymous targets for the sole purpose of causing mayhem, primarily so the perpetrators can demonstrate their displeasure with the ruling parties in control of the government, (google-Boston Marathon, Oklahoma City Bombing, 1996 Olympic bombings, '93 World Trade Center bombings, 9/11 attacks, attack on the USS Cole).

Prior to Oklahoma City in 1995, the term Domestic Terrorism didn't really exist, because it was assumed by the powers that be, that first, no one inside America was mad enough to attack America, so all terrorism came from outside the country, and secondly, the white men who were killing randomly, acting terroristically, as members of white supremacists/anti abortion groups, were not considered terrorists. Even the Weather Underground and the SDS were not labeled terrorists (google-rich white kids who blew up stuff and robbed banks in the 1960's and '70's). Not until the white guys from the Caucasus blew up the Boston Marathon, did anyone in power begrudgingly admit that white people did terrorism against the US. Until three weeks ago terrorists were brown... Muslims, primarily, or Cubans (five imprisoned now), or Puerto Ricans (Americans but brown and spanish speaking- google FALN).

So now, since everybody, including white people, has to be considered a potential terrorist, the government apparently decided to make the rewritten definition retroactive, thereby changing the label on the historical civil rights protests, and effectively calling Assata Shakur a domestic terrorist.

If Assata Shakur is a domestic terrorist, then so am I and so is every other Black person who ever marched for civil rights in America. Today's placement on the most wanted list and bounty has indicted all of us in one fell swoop, and places us in jeopardy for speaking out against our government in protest.

Assata Shakur, for all of you historically challenged, was a member of the Black Panther Party and a member of the Black Liberation Army, back in the day when the government waged war on Black people for demanding equality.

Shakur, the Panthers the BLA and every other group that fought for civil rights was targeted by a covert government agency called COINTELPRO, which infiltrated, spied on, arrested, convicted and imprisoned Blacks who disagreed with the government, it's Jim Crow policies and institutionalized racism that continues to exist today. When they couldn't take Blacks down quietly, they executed us summarily (google- Fred Hampton).

Shakur, who is the aunt of the late Tupac, was caught up in a bunch of crimes and situations that ended violently. If you believe the police, she was responsible for nearly every bank robbery and cop killing on the east coast from 1971-1973-4.

New Jersey Police official Fuentes lied through his teeth today during the news conference stating the Shakur killed a cop by shooting him twice in the head as he lay on the ground. This was proven to be a lie during her trial, yet it continues to be told by government officials and the Feds. What...don't they have the court transcripts to refer back to?

She was tried several times, and finally convicted and sentenced to life in prison. She escaped from maximum security, finally making it to Cuba in 1984 where she was granted political asylum. She remains there to this day, quietly living, writing and speaking out. The feds have always known where she was.

Yet today, they decide to name her a domestic terrorist. She's not attacking people or building bombs to cause mass destruction. Are they afraid that Black people are going to suddenly become radicalized again in the same way that some Muslims are made radical by the Osamas of the world?

Why? It's not like America has an extradition treaty with Cuba? It's not like we're on good terms with Raul Castro or his brother Fidel, now retired. It's not like Assata is going to give herself up and yearns to come home to the US.

Maybe the feds are trying to work a trade...give us Assata and we will free the Cuban five, currently doing life sentences in an American jail.

Only time will tell..

to be continued..

Another White Guy Rampage in America

Personally, I don't give a rat's ass if the Tsarnaev brothers are white. No one who goes around throwing bombs and killing people for no reason is ever gonna make it into my top ten list of favorite people on this earth, anyway, regardless of their skin color or place of national origin. Killing and mass murder have always been equal opportunity, especially when this special brand of psychopathy as exhibited by the brothers last week unfolds across our television screens.

For some reason as yet unexplained, when guys like this throw a violent temper tantrum in order to right the perceived wrongs levied against them by society, innocents die. What happened last week felt like international terrorism only because an IED(improvised explosive device) was used. However, as the story unfolded it seemed to indicate a different kind of thing, more Columbine than 9/11. Both Columbine and 9/11 are terrorism, but different kinds of terrorism, one recognized as such, the other not so much. In the psyche of Americans, 9/11 is terrorism because of who did it, or I should say, the skin color and religion of who did it. Columbine is still considered boys acting out, read that white boys acting out, like Newtown and a couple of dozen other high school killing incidents during the past decade.

They have the money, they have access to the guns and they have the perfect hiding place, in plain sight, lost in any number of the neighborhoods inhabited by the masters of the universe. These two were so arrogant that they didn't try to run away until their pictures hit the airwaves. Then it seems they decided to go out in a blaze of glory, calling attention to themselves by killing a cop, hijacking a car, reportedly telling their victim they were the bombers and getting into a gun battle with police, complete with assault weapons right out in the street. The story goes, that little brother actually killed big brother by running over him with the get away car as he lay in the street after being tackled by a police officer, but not before he was able to call his mother and say good bye. How very American of them. Up until they revealed themselves, nobody knew who or where they were. Did they screw up and just panicked? Didn't seem like there was a plan B for these guys.

It sounds like a movie script or a scene straight out of Grand Theft Auto the video game.

What was new about this old scenario is the ease with which the police, Feds and military locked down an American city and kept it that way until they got their men. What we saw was practice implementation of Martial law. What we saw this past week in Boston would have been illegal prior to 9/11. The laws enabling this militaristic mobilization went into effect 34 days after the twin towers fell. 34 days is how long it took for Congress to pass the Patriot Act and for President Bush to sign into law.

 Rather than repeal these attacks on our civil liberties, our new President, Obama, has done everything in his power to strengthen those powers, enabling full White House control of the populace if and when it becomes necessary by using militarized police forces backed up by real military. ( All you second amendment, dooms day preppers, and apocalypse survivalists with your 14-15 assault weapons and big ammo clips....good luck with that when the shit hits the fan and the Feds come for your ass). But I digress....

Little brother crawled away from the gun fight only to be cornered hiding in some guy's boat four blocks away. Wounded, police are now speculating that even though they took him alive, he tried unsuccessfully to shoot himself in the head, before police stormed his hiding place. Jihadist tend to blow themselves up, not swallow a bullet. Swallowing bullets is soooo, well...  so American.

No one really knows what happened with these guys, or where or when they decided killing innocents was the play of the day. But having spent most of their lives living in America, it would be a safe bet to assume that their so called radicalization happened right here in the good old USA and not some mountain region in Eastern Europe.

Same Sex Marriage

Will Clarence Thomas, speak, clear his throat or sit like a lump of coal waiting patiently for Scalia to whisper in his ear....

60% of people recently polled by ABC news say same sex marriage is okay in America. That same poll found that 80% of those under 30 support the idea. Those numbers should make it a done deal, right? Majority rules, right?

Well, not exactly. In the Land of the free, home of the brave, very few decisions are made by majority rule.

Proposition 8 and DOMA are before the United States Supreme Court today and despite the garbage rhetoric coming from FOX News, the Supreme Court is not a liberal court by any stretch of the imagination. If it was we wouldn't be stuck with last year's Citizens United ruling making corporations people.

For those of you who don't know, Prop 8 is the measure in California that revoked same sex marriage. DOMA stands for defense of marriage act. It was passed on the federal level back in 1996 and signed into law by a now repentant Bill Clinton. It says that marriage is only for men and women who marry each other. No boy-boy, or girl on girl unless its pornography for lesbian-loving straight men.

DOMA is like all those old sodomy laws that used to be on the books, outlawing oral or anal sex, but only gays and lesbians were charged and prosecuted. Straight couples doing exactly the same doggie style were never criminalized and cited, ever.

So today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments to overturn both laws. Actually one will be argued today and the other tomorrow. Regardless, it will make for an exciting week at the nation's highest court. Tickets to get inside were at a premium.

However, one ticket was scarfed up by a cousin of Chief Justice Roberts. Seems cuz is a lesbian and wants her big cousin to act like Ohio Senator Rob Portman and support his family. She says she wants to get married legally in the near future.

U.S. Supreme Court

Of course, no one has any idea what Chief Roberts is thinking, nor any of the other Associate Justices for that matter. Insiders will start guessing when they start asking questions during arguments.

Have to admit, I'm curious about how Justice Thomas will vote, especially since his own marriage to a white woman used to be illegal. Wonder if he will throw off his chains of servitude and vote like a proud Black man for a change.

The intellectual machinations of all the possible rulings in these two cases is mind boggling, so I'm just gonna pop some corn and wait for the outcome. I will say this, I don't see how the Court can frame this so narrowly that it won't take into account just how mobile our society is. In other words how can you make law that applies to one state but not another. I mean, if a couple is legally married in Omaha, they should also be legally married in Ohio, right?

It was like that in the interracial marriage ban, Loving vs Virginia. Once that law was struck down, it was made to apply to the whole country, not just Virginia. The same thing

should logically happen with Prop 8 and DOMA.

I honestly see it falling this way, Alito, Scalia and possibly Thomas will do what they always do. So will Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayer. I see Kennedy and Roberts as swing votes.

Bigotry Saves Life of Ohio Black Woman

Another Moore Family mystery....

While rummaging through some old family papers and pictures with my 83 year old mother, this past weekend, we came across some old Jet Magazines. One of them dated July 23, 1953 has an article about a Black woman who missed a trip on the Titanic.

Yep. That Titanic. The one that sank in April of 1912.

Mrs. Mary Ethel Moore of Marion, Ohio should have been on that ill fated voyage. She told the story to Jet Magazine, this way;

Jet Magazine, July 23, 1953

Mrs. Moore along with her twin sister were in Europe working as maids for a wealthy white family. While there, she studied cosmetology in Paris and in Baden-Baden, Germany, taking advantage of opportunities that were not readily available to Blacks back in the good old Buckeye State of Ohio.

Mrs. Moore decided to return to America when she completed her studies, and rather than wait for her white family to come back with them, she made her own reservations.

Everything went well until she presented herself at the ticket office in London. Back in those days, we weren't Black, we were colored. The clerk at the office took one look at the dusky skinned Mrs. Moore and promptly told her that her reservation and ticket were not in order and that she couldn't get on the boat.

She said, she left the office and “cried bitterly,” for days. She was still crying and waiting to return to America when word came that the boat she had been booked on had hit an iceberg and sank, killing more than 1513 people on board.

                                                               Jet Magazine 7/1953

Mrs. Moore said she got on her knees and thanked God for not allowing her to get on the boat which she now knew from news reports, was named Titanic.

Mrs. Moore, eventually returned to Ohio and opened up a beauty salon with her twin sister, a shop that catered mainly to a white clientele, including the wife of President Warren G. Harding, who was from the area. Harding's wife was not one of the “white” clientele, but that's another story.

Jet Magazine interviewed Mrs. Moore about her experiences when a movie about the Titanic sinking premiered that year. The reporter asked if she intended to see the movie, to which she replied; “she had no desire to see a tragedy in the movies.”

The reporter then asked Mrs. Moore if she felt she might have been one of the lucky survivors of the Titanic sinking, if she had been on the ship, and she said,

“I seriously doubt it. If the company was mean enough to deny me space on their clean new ship because of the color of my skin, I feel that my color would have been sufficient reason for them to keep me out of a life boat.” 

Mary Ethel Moore, Marion, Ohio

Mrs. Moore ended the interview by saying that she wanted to return to Europe one day. I don't know if she ever made it back. But I sure hope so.  

Now, the work for me begins. I've got to figure out which one of my relatives saved this article because we do have kin from the area, and this magazine was kept among the important family papers. It wasn't just a magazine that got saved or missed being thrown out. Just when I think I can't find anything more on my family, I run across something like this...

Rob Portman Comes Out

So today one of my Ohio Senate representatives on Capital Hill is a changed man. Today he favors gay marriage, where yesterday, he was agin it. Yesterday, he voted in favor of amending the Constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman, thereby relegating gays and lesbians to permanent second class citizenship. Today, Rob Portman tells CNN, the Columbus Dispatch and everyone else who'll listen that he favors repealing DOMA, that marriage is for everyone, straight or otherwise.

What a difference a day made. Well it's not that it's a different day or even daylight saving time or he had a V-8. No, it's the fact that his Yale attending son, Will, has come carefully out of his velvet-lined closet, to the surprise of his ultra conservative and religious parents. Young Will actually came out two years ago, but it took Dad a while to sort out the possible consequences to his political career.

In other words, do I tell Mitt that my kid likes boys now that he wants me to be his VP? Portman says he told him, but it had nothing to do with Romney switching horses in mid stream to run with Lyin' Ryan, the pariah from Wisconsin.

So now because Will is queer, the world needs to be made to fit his perception of privilege and equality, or so says his power broker Daddy.

I can just see Portman now, “tradition and religion and the GOP be damned! I'm gonna make this world safe for my homo son! And if he wants to make me a grandfather down the road, I'll pretend to be as happy as a good father can be!”

Whoopie! We the people have been given yet another glimpse into the lives of the rich, famous and white of America. If the world doesn't fit your perception, change it. Trickle down equality works as well as trickle down economics, right?

Well, no it doesn't.

Equality is a right garnered at birth. It is not predicated on the size of your bank account, color of skin, social station or what church you attend. It is a human right to be equal to every other human being on the face of this planet.

This is what the Rob Portmans of the world don't understand. Will's coming out was a personal situation for the Portmans. However, even if he had stayed securely strapped in the closet and “straight-acting” for the comfort of his parents, Rob Portman should have supported equality from jump. He should never have voted in favor of DOMA. He should never have supported Don't Ask, Don't Tell. He should be jumping all over, showing his support for ENDA.

His son's sexual orientation should never have mattered in the first place. It's about doing the right thing, as Christians and conservatives like Rob Portman always claim to do. It's that compassionate conservatism thingey.

So forgive me, if I don't jump up and down and congratulate the junior senator from Ohio for finally doing the right thing. 

All  I can say is, what took you so long?

RUN, HIDE..THE BIG SCARY BLACK MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE IS GON KILL US ALL!

That's all this drone argument boils down to. The talk and what's happening ain't new. It's American tradition. When a black takes control of anything in this country, be it the White House, the neighborhood, city hall, the police department, the county commission, the courts, white folks, regardless of whether or not they voted for the black, are doing what they've always done...run for the hills. White flight, period. Time to stop laying it solely at the feet of bigoted conservatives.

It's not a republican thing or a democrat thing...it's a white thing. White folks, regardless of their political persuasion, believe that all black people do is destroy everything they touch, so it's best just to leave em to it and run. Only way to keep their families safe from marauding Negroes. Even the so called liberals point to Africa to justify their feelings, ignoring it's post colonial past, while not yet recognizing the new colonial Indian-Asian movement that has taken hold, stealing black sovereignty once again.

The new 21^st century twist on this innate belief, is that silly American negroes, defined as those who think they've made it and fully assimilated into this “post racial” society are also joining this idjit moment. The SAN's have moved on up and out to the suburbs, all the while, not paying attention to fact that the new bastions of pristine Euro-whiteness are the inner cities. You know all those marvelous centuries old brownstones that black folks abandoned in favor of pre-fab heaven in the West Chesters of America, after corporate gods moved all the jobs overseas or barring that, to the suburbs.

Don't think for a moment that I am ignoring the fact that Blacks would not in the first place, be loaned the money for the massive rehabs by the white corporate bank structure needed to resurrect those old brownstones. That's another story and I digress.

Now this drone obsessed rainbow coalition is up in arms because President Obama is using machines to fight the war in Afghanistan instead of boots on the ground. The skittles movement is concerned about the “innocents” and the “US citizens” who are being targeted by big bad Obama and his rain of death from the sky. And, they are speculating that maybe, probably, he is going to target American citizens on American ground for goodness sake.

Obama Derangement Syndrome, still running amok.

Give a man a fish and he will feed himself for a day. Give a Black man power and he will kill all the white folks and declare himself king of the world. Obama Derangement Syndrome.

Yes, drones are being used in Afghanistan. Yes, innocent people are being killed. Yes, at least one American citizen has been targeted, and rightfully so, to my mind. Yes, drones are coming to the skies over America. Truth be told, they are probably already there, and as proof, all you have to do is to tune into Youtube, or Google view, whatever the hell it's called.

Americans are already on candid camera. Killing us from the sky is not a big mental leap. Putting it into practice, however, would take a little more effort. But killing Americans on American soil, anytime soon...not gonna happen.

In the future, maybe. But not now, and certainly not while Obama remains in office.

Drones...Assault weapons, big clip bans...RaHoWa (racial holy war) started by Obama...Terminator/SkyNet justice.....

Obama Derangement Syndrome...nothing more.

The Palinator Pope

Well Pope Bennie has taken his last spin around St. Peters in the Pope mobile. His resignation is official at 8pm Thursday night, clearing the way for that one ring circus, the college of cardinals. The meeting, usually held after a pontiff dies, will take place for the first time with the big guy still alive for the first time in 600 years, tucked away inside a monastic retreat on Vatican grounds, some say to prevent prosecution for any one of a number of scandals rocking the papacy.

You can read his resignation announcement here.

Bennie will get to keep his pope name instead of revert back to Joseph, which is his real name, and he can still wear virgin white vestments. However he's gotta give up those sparkly red Prada loafers. (Wonder if he will sell them on Ebay and donate the money to feed the hungry...nah) Think he probably has to give back the pope ring, too.

And now that good old Ben has been tucked out of sight, the drama swept under the rug, temporarily at least, now comes time for the other men who favor dresses, big high hats and pretty shoes to take over the spotlight and select their new spiritual leader via the smoke, but no mirror method.

By the way, was Ru Paul invited to this shindig? Nevermind, I digress.

Word is that chocolate is the flavor of the month according to all the English bookies. Seems an African cardinal, Peter Terkson is one of the favorites. Cardinal Peter is one of the many religious leaders who has signed off on all the “kill the gays” legislation circulating on the Continent (ya'll do know Africa is a Continent-not a country, right?)

Cardinal Peter has gone so far as to say recently all the child abuse in the church...ALL of that scandal is the work of devious gays trying to take down the church.

And although the mainstream media keeps billing him as maybe the first black pope, history tells us there have been at least two others, which would make 3 total, if it happens. Just look what Barack has started. Next thing you know, they will be talking about the possibility of a female pope. But that can't happen until the Holy See starts “seeing” women as human beings worthy of the priesthood.

With Cardinal Peter of Africa and Cardinal Timmy of New York as the favorites who don't live in Italy, women as priests let alone as pope probable, ain't gonna happen anytime soon. At the rate Bennie was going before he pulled-a-palin, all the nuns in America were close to being kicked out of the church anyway for bucking his papal authority. That would make the church, the old boys club that they all want anyway. They can't even admit that Mary Magdalene might have been Jesus' friend and disciple rather than the local hooker with a heart of gold.

Oh well. Bennie changed the rules so the college of cardinals don't have to wait 15 days to elect a new leader, so let the games begin.

Going to pop some popcorn and kick back in front of the telly to wait for the white smoke (what? You didn't think the signal was going to be black, did you?), which will signal the selection of the Last Pope according to the prophecy of St. Malachi. Read here

I don't believe in the prophecy, unless he selects Peter as his pope name.

 If that happens, I'm going to start partying like it's 1999, because it really will be the end of the world and not as we know it.

Conversations with my Dad

I am still mulling over a very recent conversation with my 84 year old father about guns. He is NRA, a long time member. I am not a supporter, which should be abundantly clear to anyone who reads this blog.  My father on the other hand, is a classic example of the successful marketing done by the National Rifle Association. Dad is just a guy who likes to hunt. He also has guns for home protection. He taught his daughters how to shoot. My mother is a better shot than my dad, if truth be told. He keeps them in a locked safe, which he didn't do when I was a kid, but chose to do when he started having grandchildren. He innately realized that today's kids are different from the kids of yesterday. Yesterday, if we were told not to touch the gun, we didn't, even if we knew where it was, and we did. We just left it there. My first memory of guns in the house dates back to when I was six. It was a handgun that I would come to know later was a 38.  But Dad also tends to believe everything the NRA tells him in the magazine and mass mailings to which he is subjected on a weekly basis.

The message  since  January 2009: Obama is coming to take away all of your guns.

Now my father is an intelligent man. He reads absolutely everything that finds its way into his mailbox along with the books that he buys or articles that he comes across in the newspaper, which he reads daily. My parents are still subscribers. He is skeptical about much of it. He questions a lot of what he reads. In fact our conversation began with him calling me and asking me for the definition of the word “heretic.” The word was used in an article, to refer to Chuck Hagel by republicans during the confirmation hearings last week.

From that jumping off point, we got onto gun control.

We talked about the NRA position. I told him about the NRA lies to its membership. I talked about what the President has really said. My father admitted reading about Obama's positions. I told him about how the NRA stood with Ronald Reagan against blacks and specifically the Black Panther Party carrying guns according to the Second Amendment, back in the day. How it's apparently okay for white people to own guns but not blacks. I explained the assault weapons ban that Bush allowed to expire, while Obama refused to put it back in place. Because in fact, Obama is as big a hindrance on gun control as the GOP and the NRA, regardless of how many tears he sheds in public.

I talked about how and why the NRA buys congressmen in order to get their laws passed instead of laws that would better the people and society. My Dad admitted reading articles on the subject, and recently, too.

We talked for a long time, but in the end, all my father could or would say despite all that I told him was:

“But Obama is coming to take my guns and make me register the ones he lets me keep!”

NRA, mission accomplished...

Nigga with a Gun! Duck! Oh, It's Just Obama...

Considering all the crap that's gone on since Obama was elected to the White House, one would think his apparent discomfort with firearms would bring peace to white America.

But no. As soon as he admits to skeet shooting once in a while at Camp David, to demonstrate his regular guy-ness, everybody wants to see the pictures. White women line up to challenge him, betting they are better shots than the brown man who leads.

White men haven't challenged, apparently self checking into the Dick Cheney “I shot my friend in the face” column, assuming they are more manly than our current mocha prez. It's the same, tired old shit. Any white man is better than the best black one, at anything. Really?

Because that's all this crap is, another way of implying that President Obama is soft. That he is not ever up to the task of being the President of the United States again. For a second landslide term, another four years as voted by “we the people” of the United States.

And who gives a damn, anyway? The gun control debate is not about how well, or even if Obama can shoot. It's about all the fools running around with weapons of war in an alleged civilized society. That's all it's ever been. Except when it turns racial, like now, when the focus is on Obama's “manliness” or when Black Panthers were legally carrying weapons in public, back in the day. Talk about about faces, the NRA nearly gave itself whiplash back peddling on guns in public when black men took to the streets peacefully inside their own neighborhoods. The panthers didn't kill anybody, but the government declared open season and killed them.

Today, the Tea Party has been doing the same thing within the past four or five years and nobody bats an eye. GOP legislators can't change the laws quick enough to allow this blatant guns in public, anti social/racist behavior, yet all anyone can talk about is whether or not our president can shoot a gun.

Any fool can shoot a gun, just ask Dick Cheney's buddy with the shot off face.

Let's get serious. The United States Constitution allows citizens to own a gun. Second Amendment. Fine. This law also means that no one is a criminal until they pull the trigger and or kill someone. Therefore, in order to protect society from criminals, all citizens have to be regulated, because criminals will only reveal themselves through their illegal actions.

You can't just say “keep the guns away from the crazy and the criminal,” because there is no way to know them before the fact, unless there is a screening procedure and or background checks for past behavior.

And considering what happened at Sandy Hook and Columbine and all the other schools and workplace shootings, these shooters, most of them, would have passed the background checks as well as the screenings, because they are to the manor born, white guys with access to money.

Face it, the masters of the universe do not want to deal with the fact that they are raising crazy violent children. But they must if we are to survive as a civilized society.

Then again, maybe that is the issue, shrink the US until it's small enough to be drowned in a bathtub.

Is that the game being played right now? We can't have it so we're going to make sure that you don't? Really?

And don't for one minute, one second, think that I am letting Black America off the hook. There is no fucking reason on the face of this earth that justifies all the Black kids dying in Chicago, in my neighborhood and all the other urban neighborhoods in the US.

This is not a white man's problem...this is US, period. White people aren't killing US. WE are killing each other and it's got to stop.

When will the so called leaders, so called civil rights groups, so called Black religious organizations, churches wake the fuck up?

Black on black violence is not about the number of guns. It's facilitated by the abundance of weaponry, but not precipitated by it.

Our kids have been dying for a long time. Do we need a Black Sandy Hook before WE wake up, too?

Inquiring minds want to know....

Hey America, You Can Have My Guns When You Pry Them from My Cold Dead Hands

Was anyone really surprised by what came out of the National Rifle Association's news conference yesterday? After a week of silence about the deaths at Sandy Hook Elementary, Wayne La Pierre, the NRA's head honcho stepped to the mic and basically told America to go fuck itself.

His right to own guns trumps any right we the people have to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, period.

His right to own weapons of mass murder trumps any desire that we the people may have for living in a world with no guns.

As La Pierre said, “guns don't kill people. People kill people.”

In Wayne's world it's the violent video games and violent action movies coming out of Hollywood that are responsible for the proliferation of violence in America. Cowboy movies made us kill off all the Indians, apparently.

His solution is to put armed men trained by the NRA in every single school in America and he demanded that Congress pay for them. “you know how to stop a bad guy with a gun, a good guy with a gun, shooting back at him.” That was Wacko Wayne's big solution to ending American gun violence.

Not fewer guns or better background checks or waiting periods or better mental health care for Americans, or studies as to why it seems white guys want to kill everyone in sight before they off themselves or die by cop. No Wayne wants to add more possibilities of violence to the mix.

What next shooting 101 for K-4, to be taught immediately after recess?

“The truth is that our society is populated by an unknown number of genuine monsters — people so deranged, so evil, so possessed by voices and driven by demons that no sane person can possibly ever comprehend them. They walk among us every day....”

Sounds like good ole insane Wayne was describing himself in that last quote, doesn't it. The monsters among us have already been profiled and it's funny how they all look like Wayne, talk like Wayne and walk like Wayne.

Maybe we should let law enforcement work the profile, backed up by the improved mental health offered by Affordable Health Care, along with a reinstatement of the ban on assault weapons, better background checks and waiting periods, for starters.

Then let's work on limiting bullets and mass-kill magazines. 

Gun Violence in America,Where the Shit Hits the Fan..

If not now, When?

20 innocent white children died yesterday because another privileged white boy took his parent's weapons and acted out, horrifying America. Babies died. Teachers died. It was an almost unheard of attack on a school, except that it had happened before, at Columbine and Virginia Tech. Two days earlier another one walked into a mall in another non-urban area and killed two before killing himself. Other crazy white boys have turned churches into shooting ranges to demonstrate their hate of people who are different.

What makes this so horrifying was the age of the latest victims, 5-10 years old. Even President Obama teared up while delivering the country's condolences via nationwide news coverage.

Yet, Obama's press secretary shut down the press who dared to ask for a response, by saying “today is not the day.”

I am truly sorry so many little white kids died, yesterday. I really am. But the day to hold this conversation on gun violence in America was this past summer when gun death stalked the streets of Chicago. The day to hold this conversation was when the crazy white supremacist walked into a Sikh Temple and killed innocent people of color.

The time to hold this conversation was when Amadou DiAllou was killed at his front door, or when Sean Bell died in his car the night before he was to get married, or when Trayvon Martin was killed while walking home, or the young man was executed in the back seat of his friend's car, down in Florida, a few weeks ago.

The time to hold this conversation is the next time a bullet rips through a wall and kills a kid thought to be safe inside her own bedroom

The time to hold this conversation is whenever the Mothers of murdered children hold a march and vigil in the neighborhoods of the inner city, commemorating the lives of their dead children, just as innocent and cut down in life way to soon.

These victims, people of color, usually, are equally as innocent as the ones who died at Sandy Hook, or Columbine or Virginia Tech, but they are totally forgotten. The daily body count is not even mentioned in the same breath with what happened in these communities “where things such as this just never happen.”

Mass murders seem to be increasing in upscale communities, and I guess I should welcome the coming storm of media coverage that follows rich white people and their children when they die. However,  daily killings go on in urban centers unabated, and unreported, and all we get is silence from Washington.

Another crazy white boy takes out a Congresswoman and nine others, and all you hear from Congress is silence when one of their own is cut down.

Nothing. Nada.

Neither side of the congressional aisle had anything to say when Gabbie Giffords was shot, or yesterday, proving that Democrats are as bought and paid for by the National Rifle Association as Republicans. Everybody who calls himself a politician suckles at the NRA money tit, regardless of the outcry coming from the people they are supposed to represent.

The second amendment was not meant to be stretched this far or used for the purpose of allowing crazies to arm themselves with big guns in order to kill the rest of us. I've got no problem with hunters or home protection. But the question that has to be answered is, what “game” are you hunting for with an AK-47 or a gun that fires wall piercing bullets?

Which brings me back to the President. Having recently won re election in a landslide, isn't it time to speak up on the things that people care about, namely gun violence, stopping the wars altogether, and rebuilding infrastructure, mental health issues, climate change and the environment?

Not like the prez is going to lose any votes by addressing what we think is in his heart. The blue collar and rich white men who hate him now, are not gonna change their minds if he stays silent on gun control.

They're already pissed off, so let's go all the way and piss them off some more.

We the people gave Obama his Teflon coat of armor. Now is the time to put it on and take down some of the demons that plague us as a country. Time to make some real, meaningful change.

Top of the list, gun violence and mental health.

How about it Mr. President?

Beam Me Up Scotty, No Need to Christmas Shop

Well, here we are, one month after the re election of America's first Black President, and it's time for the world to end, again. It's due to end on December 21, 2012. That's 20 days from today and the reasons for it vary.

If you recently bought a Mayan Calendar, then your calendar ends in 20 days, at about noon, and since time ends when the Mayans Calendar ends, so does the earth according to doomsayers. We can't really ask any Mayans for verification of their arithmetic, because all the Mayans, themselves, have died or were killed off a long time ago by marauding Conquistadors who infected them with white man's disease when they didn't kill them outright. Historians say it's not gonna happen. The EOWAWKI (end of the world as we know it) folks have cyphered wrong, and basically all they are doing with their predictions is driving kids crazy or to suicide.

If you believe in aliens and follow NASA and all space happenings, then look to the sky because some rogue planet named Nibiru is heading toward earth on collision course. Doesn't matter that nobody can see it. Hell, nobody has ever seen it in the sky. NASA says no such planet or moon has ever existed. But it's there, say all the astro-nuts waiting for it.

Many of these astro-nuts are congregating in a small town in French Alps to wait for the Earth to Nibiru head-on collision. Seems there is a portal there to take anyone who wants to survive the collision to another planet or dimension.The portal, or dimensional doorway is in somebody's garage.

It's gotten so bad that the town mayor has issued a “do not come” order to those thinking of coming. He is shutting down the border right about now. So people will have to choose another vantage point or find another garage from which to “beam up.”

Run of the mill Christians are still waiting to be Raptured ala Revelation. You can read about it in the bible written by good King James of England. But don't ask Rev Harold Camping out in California. He's missed his due date twice, and his followers are all pissed off at him since they sold or gave away all their earthly possessions and are still here and have to face the bill collectors. So now he refuses to tell us heathens just when the world will end.

Of course you can always pray for continued good health for Pope Benedict. Once upon a time, long ago, in 1590, Irish Saint Malachy said there would be 112 popes to reign over the Holy See in Rome and then the world would end. Pope Bennie is pope number 111. The last pope would be Peter the Roman who will nourish the sheeple through many trials and tribulation and when he dies, the city of seven hills will be destroyed and the judge of judges will exact punishment on his people. The End.

Many people think this last prediction was actually Nostradamus playing tricks on the Catholic Church...that St Malachy was in fact Nostradamus in drag. Who knows.

Maybe those of us who live in cities built on seven hills, like Cincinnati, Ohio, should move to other locations just to be safe.

Personally, I'm not doing any Christmas shopping until December 22^nd. No sense in wasting the money, if nobody is gonna be here to rock around the Christmas tree on Christmas.

The End of the World cancels Kwanzaa, too. But considering that most of this end times crap is a response to America's first Black President, maybe killing Kwanzaa was the real goal in the first place.

HA! We done figured it out now. Ya'll don't want the world to end....ya'll just want to kill Kwanzaa...

Another conspiracy theory laid bare.

War on Men...Are You Serious!

“It’s all so unfortunate – for women, not men. Feminism serves men very well: they can have sex at hello and even live with their girlfriends with no responsibilities whatsoever.

It’s the women who lose. Not only are they saddled with the consequences of sex, by dismissing male nature they’re forever seeking a balanced life. The fact is, women need men’s linear career goals – they need men to pick up the slack at the office – in order to live the balanced life they seek. So if men today are slackers, and if they’re retreating from marriage en masse, women should look in the mirror and ask themselves what role they’ve played to bring about this transformation.”- Suzanne Venker

Another quote taken from an essay written by one of these stockholm syndrome bitches. Blaming the victim for the actions of the oppressor. Last time I looked we still live in a patriarchal society. One built by the very “slackers” who are “retreating” from marriage en mass as a reaction to virulent “feminism.”

Women have always been victimized by the consequences of sex. Well before feminism took shape, men had sex when they wanted it. They married it and demanded it or raped their girlfriends or other women, when they chose. Women were always kicked to the curb when men decided they wanted a new and or younger model. Feminism didn't create that. Men did. Now they're crying because women, tired of being treated no better than a retreaded tire, have taken control of their own lives?

Men are crying about sex and marriage just like old white men are crying about darkies not knowing their place in society these days. The world is changing around them, and they, meaning men, are not “transforming” to deal with modern day relationships and situations. Some males are acting like spoiled children who no longer are being given their way and have decided to hold their breath and turn blue to demonstrate their displeasure.

Or they sit back and watch the girl on girl action while women such as Venker write books, work in the real world, be the bread winner in their households, and take every advantage that feminism grants them, bashing all other women who strive, without calling themselves feminists. It's like wiggers or gay republicans, making a life co opting other minority cultures but running for the safety of whiteness when shit hits the fan. Venker and her stepford wife sisters hide behind their trophy husbands ignoring the fact that almost all traditional marriages are not the stuff of fairytale and legend. They've just found out a way to make it work. But isn't that what feminism teaches all women about life in general?

As women change and gain success in the business world and world in general, they are not willing to settle for mates who are little more than bigger versions of their children, rather than partners in life. Some men, are refusing to step up to the plate and to grow.

What feminism means is that women no longer will settle when there is a better life visible on the horizon. Some would prefer to share that life with men, others are willing to seek it out without them, having sex and raising children on their own terms, primarily because feminism has taught them they can afford it emotionally and financially and they deserve it. Period.

(Originally written for and posted on Intersection of Madness, 11/2012 )