Diva Against Insanity

Terminator Dogs

2012-03-14T15:51:00.001-07:00

My brother sent me the video below a while ago. The future is now, y'all. I watch and read a lot of science fiction. I also read a lot of comic books in my youth (who am I fooling? If comics were still $1.75, I'd be buying them now. The baby's shoes can wait. Must find out what happened to Storm and Black Panther). In some of my other posts, I've talked about the optimistic side of the future: Star Trek. This is a future where whatever you desire can come to be. Play whatever music you like, translate all foreign languages into something you can understand, set up colonies on Mars, and range across the universe and explore new worlds, new civilizations…to boldly go…well, you know the rest.

There's another sci-fi version of the future that had just as much impact on future technology as ST: The Terminator. That movie scared the crap outta me. You just couldn't kill the robot. It kept coming. It was intelligent and clever; it could think, plan, strategize. It could track you down and move as fast or faster than you and any other vehicle around you. The machines wanted the planet, and frankly…they won, we lost.

Sigh…that future is here my friend. The future is now:

FYI, this video was made in 2008. Four years ago. Besides the annoying buzzing sound, the robot is relatively agile and cannot fall down. What other reason would there be to have this robot except to track people down. What other use could there be? Again, this video is ancient by modern technological advancement standards. Development of technology must be fast paced in order to effectively compete in the marketplace. Someone is going to want this robot, or at least the capabilities that it represents. Well at least the robots can't actually think…yet.

Universal Translator soon come

2012-03-10T12:16:00.000-08:00

Again my geekdom is rewarded. As a life long Star Trek fan, I always look at how much ST has changed the way we think about so many things, from culture to technology. And here it is again! Not only can we say,"Computer?" like Scotty in Star Trek 4 and it actually answers, i.e. siri in iPhone 4s, but now the Universal Translator is on it's way to becoming a reality as well. Next thing you know we'll be ordering our meals from the moons of Antaries in Klingon.

Researchers at Microsoft have made software that can learn the sound of your voice, and then use it to speak a language that you don't. The system could be used to make language tutoring software more personal, or to make tools for travelers.

In a demonstration at Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, campus on Tuesday, Microsoft research scientist Frank Soong showed how his software could read out text in Spanish using the voice of his boss, Rick Rashid, who leads Microsoft's research efforts. In a second demonstration, Soong used his software to grant Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, the ability to speak Mandarin.

In English, a synthetic version of Mundie's voice welcomed the audience to an open day held by Microsoft Research, concluding, "With the help of this system, now I can speak Mandarin." The phrase was repeated in Mandarin Chinese, in what was still recognizably Mundie's voice.

…."For a monolingual speaker traveling in a foreign country, we'll do speech recognition followed by translation, followed by the final text to speech output [in] a different language, but still in his own voice," said Soong.

Nice try FOX News, but we have youtube

2012-03-10T00:17:00.001-08:00

I saw this video on Facebook, so I'm assuming many people have already seen it, BUT…it's something that needs to be repeated to the masses that think that any president at any time can affect market forces with significance. They can't. The video is a reminder to all players of the political game: We have youtube. All we have to do is type in what we want and we can find literally everything you have said in the public eye, and sometimes stuff you said in private. No more having short memories...

Rush Revisited

2012-03-07T21:17:00.001-08:00

As an addendum to my take on the Rush Limbaugh controversy yesterday, here is why I believe liberals are sometimes outrageous in their rhetoric.

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh this afternoon while I was in my car. Yes, I actually do listen to him occasionally. He actually had some interesting analysis of the Super Tuesday results. He was speaking about two media perspectives on Mitt Romney's wins. One, Rush believes the media is choosing to ignore the basic fact that Romney achieved significant wins in places he needed, like Ohio; to paint those accomplishments as lackluster is unfair to Romney as they clearly demonstrate his ability to win primaries and delegates. But then Limbaugh continued on to elucidate what he sees as the other media angle, which is that the manner by which Romney won these contests shows the electorate that he is a weak candidate…but I digress.

Limbaugh also spoke about energy independence and how we cannot count on solar energy because the reason Solyndra failed was because there's no market for solar panels in America. This, of course, is not true. China is just able to sell the panels for a lot less because their industry is government subsidized and they can undercut the price on American made solar panels. He then went on to say we need to drill for more oil in this country so we are not at the whim of the instability that has gone on since the dawn of time in the middle east. Again, a blatant mischaracterization, in this instance of the middle east's history. But anyway…directly after that statement Limbaugh said that "Barak Hussein Obama" doesn't want America to have it's own oil, that's why he's not allowing drilling to happen.

After hearing this I wanted to kick him in the nuts. This type of code has been used against black people for centuries and now liberals of all colors, who are getting hip to the code, are responding in a similarly angry way. First Limbaugh greatly distorts the facts. This gets the blood boiling. Then, by using the President's full name right after he mentions the problems in the middle east, he insinuates that President Obama is not REALLY an American or at the very least, that his interests lay more towards his "arabic" or "muslim" roots, hence the middle name drop. The smoke that is likely erupting from a liberal leaning person's ears is deftly deflected by Limbaugh innocently admonishing, "I repeated the president's name. What's the problem?! You're just too sensitive." But his real message has gotten across and Limbaugh can disavow any premeditation of derogatory language usage.

These type of tactics make people on the left go ape-sh*t. They start saying things that, frankly, just shouldn't come out of their mouths because Limbaugh uses such blatant dirty tricks. I don't condone incendiary or vulgar language from anyone, but I have an understanding of why it can happen.

Super Tuesday quick thoughts

2012-03-07T08:19:00.002-08:00

Seems like Mitt Romney should have made more of an impact last night with all that money behind him. Money can't buy you love though. Santorum should have been wiped out yet remains a strong contender. And will Gingrich's billionaire Super PAC donor keep on funding what is turning out to be a "spoiler" candidate? Barbara Bush said that this is the worst primary she has ever seen. It sure ain't pretty.

Limbaugh isn't alone when it comes to public crudeness towards women

2012-03-06T20:24:00.001-08:00

Before reading this article in USA Today I had this whole paragraph ready, talking about how horrible Rush Limbaugh is and how there is no comparison between him and his horrific comments toward Sandra Fluke and the comments of Bill Maher toward republican women. Well… Rush is still bad. I was going to say that Bill Maher is a comic similar in nature to Kathy Griffen. He says outrageous things to make a point. Some progressive politicians may like him and his show but are not necessarily beholden to him for votes -- just cool factor; Maher's show being IMHO just underneath a visit on the Daily Show. Rush Limbaugh, though, is a conservative commentator who greatly influences the voting proclivities of an entire section of the republican party. He calls himself an entertainer, but that's just a smoke screen for his role as outspoken political boss. I don't care that some Republican strategists denounced Limbaugh's attack on Fluke, no presidential candidate said one word against his crass comments. Having said all that, I had not actually heard what Bill Maher said about Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann.

Now, first things first, it ought to be noted that Sandra Fluke was not a public figure when Limbaugh called her a slut and a prostitute, as opposed to Palin and Bachmann who were very public and controversial figures. I had not heard the original comments from Bill Maher because I don't have HBO (something my brother bemoans me about regularly…Game of Thrones anyone?) During this firestorm, I have noticed that, again, comments after the articles really tell what the real arguments/issues are often better the actual article. Commenters are talking about a double standard between liberals and republicans. As a matter a fact, in Rush's "apology" he notes that he went to the level of liberals. I asked myself, what's that all about?

This comment from an article in the Atlantic essentially typifies what was said:

Why does Bill Maher get away with calling Sarah Palin a cunt and Barack Obama gets to keep his $1 million in money from this misogynist of the Left and the foulest of anti-Christian bigots ever, whose attitude toward people of faith is indistinguishable from a KKK member's towards blacks?

… Why do liberals who are up in arms about Limbaugh supposedly being mean to women, then close ranks behind the sordid legacy of JFK's misogyny and denounce a woman for telling the truth about how JFK demeaned her and treated her in effect like a slut?

Why do liberals who react in horror to Limbaugh's use of a particular word, end up being the same one who cheered and made an icon of George Carlin for making that one of the seven words you can never say on television (when the idea was so he could say it!)?

Answer all of that, and we can have a serious conversation. Ignore them and the Left stands exposed on this issue for the despicable hypocrites they are with thier (sic) Gestapo attitude about the First Amendment.

Lets back up a little bit. Andrew Breithbart passed recently and a fellow blogger, AverageBro, put out the following comment:

AverageBro ‏ @AverageBro

I'm really hoping liberals behave and try to show some decency here. You may not like the man, but he does leave a family behind. #Breitbart

AverageBro ‏ @AverageBro

The same decency we'd expect if something happened to a political personality we like should be afford this guy upon his death. #bebigger

This blogger leans to the left. Unfortunately, these words fell on deaf ears because all hell broke loose in about 30 seconds after that on twitter. Liberal tweets called this guy all sorts of names, saying that he was despicable, and stupid, and a horrible human being. Now, I know that Whitney Houston smoked and shot up all sorts of drugs, just like another one of my musical idols, Sarah Vaughn (y'all didn't think that sweat was just from singing hard did ya? If you sweat after singing a few notes…that's a clue). But I objected strenuously to all the coverage that showed Whitney looking awful because she was a mother and a superstar and beloved by millions. Andrew Breithbart may not have been as beloved by some, but he was by a certain group of people. Upon his death, he deserved as a human being to be recognized positively for who he was. My momma said if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I kept my mouth shut and silently said a prayer for his family. There was not a lot of blow back on the twitter-sphere about how this man was being talked about. Maybe I missed it, but it doesn't seem to me that the media picked up and ran with this side of the story.

So back to Bill Maher and Rush. When I looked at what Bill Maher had said about Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann, I was frankly astonished. Though there were some who had spoken out, there has been no letter writing campaign to get rid of him for his distasteful comments. NOW (National Organization of Women) did speak out against the comments -- eventually, but there was no big debate about it in the public. Frankly, because Sarah Palin ain't the sharpest pencil in the stack and she arguably holds some strange views, a lot of people wanted to make fun of her. Michelle Bachmann has been looking crazy since she and her bugged out eyes were on the Larry King show. But stupid and crazy are not c**ts and tw**ts. That's not ok. They have daughters too. They are mothers too.

This is why the right feels there is a double standard and there is some merit to that argument. That those women are public figures does make a difference, but if liberals want to own the high ground on political correctness and respect of people, they can't say one thing and do another just because they're mad at the tactics of the other guy. It's the same reason people get mad when republicans cheat on their wives because they often hypocritically hold up the banner of family values. There is a place for comedy, even harsh and ultra-sexual comedy, and potty mouths (I love a good potty joke - - South Park anyone?). But women should not be spoken about in such a filthy and abhorrent manner. Period.

Barbie gets a 'fro

2012-03-04T17:24:00.001-08:00

Here it is again. I found this article literally the same day that I was looking for a present for a young girl. I asked my Facebook friends what they thought I should choose and found, low and behold! A black Barbie with a 'fro!

Now, that barbie looks like she just stepped off the set of Bad Girls, but at least her hair was not straight...well it's not straight in the back. She had a curly perm or something. I was told a few years ago when they started this "sistah" line of Barbies that Mattel didn't make the doll's hair curly because girls wanted to comb the hair and curly hair would not facilitate easy combing. Uh huh…So Barbie's gonna yell, "Ouch! Ow, stop that! I can't stay still, this hurts" while she turns her head or tap dances on the floor so she doesn't say yell out, or try to run away…Oh wait, that's right: Barbie is an inanimate object and can't move and you, or better yet your child, can do whatever you like with her. Hmmm….

Like the women in the article who decided to change Barbie's straight hair to natural so that girls could have Barbies that looked more like them, it's a challenge as an artist, educator, and a mom to look a certain way that denotes beauty, professionalism, and divadom all at the same time. My 'fro accomplishes this very well, I think.

As usual, comments after the article bring out views I didn't expect:

GeorgeMost black women that I see have their hair straight like the Barbie dolls. From Michelle Obama to Oprah, they all have straight hair and not frizzy afros.
So what is the issue here? The dolls are just looking like the real people...
Until I see most black women with afros, I would say that this issue is pure bunk.

Well I will grant this commenter has made a good point. (I'll eat my hat if he's not caucasian) Most Black women do straighten their hair. But mothers want their children to have role models that demonstrate that their children are beautiful as well; it doesn't matter whether they straighten their own hair or not. So I challenge women who ONLY have straightened her to go natural for a few months. Show you're kids that you think your hair is beautiful naturally, as it is. Then, as I did, you may realize that it's just hair and you can style whatever way you like. But the pressure valve could be released on young girls HAVING to have a long, shiny, STRAIGHT, head of hair in order to be beautiful. It's just one aspect of beauty.

But I must say that certain americans would be shouting even louder about how much Michelle Obama hates this country if she ever came out in a fro. That's for sure. But she'd look might fly if she did it!

Talkin' like they know update: Jon Stewart once again hits the nail on the head

2012-03-02T13:44:00.000-08:00

I watch the Daily Show pretty much every night that I have available. After the primaries in Arizona and Michigan this past Tuesday, Jon Stewart had an absolutely spot on take on the cable news coverage. I watched CNN for as long as I could take and then I just had to stop. I watch because I'm a political junkie. However, on this night, they just killed time with one inane news shtick after another.

One of my new songs, "Talking Like You Know" from my upcoming album "Mommy, What's A Depression?" was actually inspired by this type of cable news shenanigans. In the above instance, CNN kept killing time with various round table discussions and moving from a sophisticated computer board to "the cube" when all they essentially were saying was…we don't know exactly how the Michigan race is going to turn out. But they had to make it seem like they knew something insightful; they needed to fill airspace. I wrote the song this past summer during the debt ceiling fight because it felt like the pundits, especially those on networks that have an obvious political agenda, were talking about matters that had little to no relevance to my life or the lives of anyone else around me; more importantly, they acted like they knew EVERYTHING about whatever subject they were speaking on and could not possibly be wrong in their opinions.

During the debt ceiling fiasco, no one was talking about the home mortgage crisis even as I was fighting to refinance my underwater mortgage. No one was talking about jobs, as one friend after another lost theirs or were holding on to the one they had by a thin thread. All the press was talking about was a manufactured crisis and the merits of Obama's "leading from behind" strategy in Libya. "Experts" were filling in the blanks, many times incorrectly. The pundits and "experts" chosen by Fox and MSNBC seemed to be on just to elucidate the party line. I find this immensely frustrating when all I want is to understand the news of the day from people who study it. I don't just want editorial and the networks mentioned often appear to be little more than giant Op-ed pages.

Then there is 24 hour-a-day conservative radio. All they speak about is politics from their perspective. There is no news, just editorialized commentary. And what did Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck do in their lives before radio that makes their opinion any more worthy than anyone else? Did they have a position in Government or business or foreign service that gives them a fuller knowledge of the issues more so than a guy off the street who reads a lot? It's political and economic gossip run amok. I might as well watch the Braxtons.

Congress finally throws musicians a bone

2012-03-02T08:16:00.000-08:00

HALLELUJAH! Finally musicians no longer have to have their livelihoods literally endangered when they travel. Congress has passed within the Federal Aviation Reauthorization Bill the right for musicians to carry their instruments on the plane with them. Can I get an AMEN from the band?! How many times have I been on the road with my musicians and have to fight with everyone from the person at the ticket counter to the airline stewardess to allow my musicians and I to carry our keyboards, guitars, electric basses, and horns onto the plane so they don't get destroyed?! How much money do we have to spend to get cases that are sturdy enough to withstand burly men hurling our delicate electronics and handmade instruments over and under copious amounts of heavy luggage? Afterwards, they hurtle through the air in sub zero temperatures. This is literally our livelihoods. We make our money through our instruments. If those instruments are destroyed…it's a terrifying thought. It's about time that we get the respect that our profession deserves from the airline industry.

BMI.com states:

Under the new rules, travelers who want to avoid having their Stratocaster wind up under a pile of Samsonite will now get their wish. Guitar-sized instruments or smaller will be allowed on board at no extra charge, as long as the instrument can be safely stowed in a baggage compartment or under the passenger’s seat (hence, Strat carriers may want to consider using a gig bag rather than a Fender-sized hard case). Instruments that are too large to be safely stored overhead/under a seat but do not weigh in excess of 165 pounds (including case) may still be carried on board; however, the owner will have to purchase a separate seat in order to accommodate the instrument. Owners that want to transport larger instruments as checked baggage will be allowed to do so assuming the instrument weighs 165 pounds or less and the circumference of the instrument (with case) does not exceed 150 inches.

Professional music organizations including BMI and the AFM have been pressing lawmakers to adopt a single standard for air carriers in order to better serve musicians traveling with large, valuable and or sensitive vintage instruments. To date, airlines have maintained divergent policies governing in-flight instrument storage, and rule enforcement has often been inconsistent and arbitrary. Passengers report being denied carry-on privileges by the same carrier that had previously granted such access. These issues have sometimes resulted in missed flights and canceled engagements, according to musicians’ rights advocates.

HALLELUJAH!!

Robo-Romney

2012-03-01T08:46:00.000-08:00

I think Maureen Dowd of the New York Times says it all. There's nothing more I could add:

Mitt Romney needs to be left alone to limp across the finish line, so he can devote his full time and attention to losing to President Obama.

Robo-Romney, who pulled out victories in his home state and in Arizona, and Sanctorum are still in a race to the bottom. Yet the once ruthless Republican Party seems to have pretty much decided to cave on 2012 and start planning for a post-Obama world.

Not even because Obama is so strong; simply because their field is so ridiculously weak and wacky.

John McCain has Aeschylated it to “a Greek tragedy.” And he should know from Greek tragedy.

“It’s the negative campaigning and the increasingly personal attacks,” he told The Boston Herald, adding, “the likes of which we have never seen.” When a man who was accused of having an illegitimate black child in the 2000 South Carolina primary thinks this is the worst ever, the G.O.P. is really in trouble.

Santorum and Romney Create Comedy Team

2012-02-29T22:09:00.000-08:00

Why are they so crazy?! I just don't get it. Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney need to create a comedy team: Mitt would be the straight one and Rick would be that wild and crazy guy that just says whatever comes out his mouth. Kind of like Mortimer and Randolph from the classic movie, Trading Places. They are saying some wacky stuff that is scaring the crap out of people. More to the point, they're chasing off the very people that might possibly vote for them later.

Santorum, when questioned if Obama was a “secular, liberal, Christian,” seemed to imply that there is no such thing as liberal Christian.
When you turn the “salvation story” into a “liberation theology story,” as Santorum claimed Obama’s Chicago church, United Church of Christ, had done, you “abandon Christendom.”

As a member of a United Church of Christ congregation in Washington, DC, I take umbrage at that statement. But that's not the point. The point is: A whole lot of people take umbrage at that statement because now you're saying that if you don't view Christianity the way I view it, you're not Christian. Yep, that'll win my vote.

Then he calls the president a snob because he, inaccurately, says that Obama wants everyone to go to that God-awful place: college.

It was an extension of that cultural attack when he criticized Obama on Saturday as a “snob” for wanting “everybody to go to college.” He went on to say that Obama wants students to attend liberal universities so that they can be inculcated in the same values that drive the president.

“Not all folks are gifted in the same way,” Santorum told a crowd of more than a thousand activists at the Americans for Prosperity forum in Troy, Mich.

Well, I guess he was 'gifted in that way' and so are his kids because at one point, when he was talking about how he has the same problems as everyone else, one of those problems was that he has two kids in…you guessed it -- college. As a matter of fact, I don't know of anyone in congress or any governmental body that doesn't have at least a four year degree in their background. Gingrich is Dum dum Dum: a college Professor; Ron Paul is a physician, Romney has an MBA and I believe Santorum is a…lawyer. Mmmm..I guess college is good enough for him, but everyone else doesn't have the same 'gifts'.

Meanwhile, Romney just can't turn his rich mouth off. His wife owns and drives a couple of cadillacs and he's not really into nascar, much but he knows quite a few owners of the teams. All I can do is shake my head. Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post writes about the bias of the media concerning these stories and she has a point.

His economic speech Friday was a perfect example. For weeks the media (parroting Rick Santorum’s complaints) have chided Romney for being too negative and failing to articulate a positive message. So he delivers a major economic address in Detroit. He includes lots of details. And virtually every outlet from the New York Times to the right-wing blogs ignores the content of speech and becomes obsessed with the seating arrangement.

The crowd of 1,200 was on the floor of a large stadium, leaving thousands of empty seats. So what? I mean, maybe you give it a line or two. But to dwell on it endlessly seems to be an intentional effort to ignore what the candidate is saying and simply throw stones at the candidate whom they like the least.

I actually feel sorry for the man. However, the reporters were looking at the optics of the situation because Romney's whole strategy has been based on his inevitability and mass appeal. An empty looking stadium shatters that myth. Period.

But each flub frankly is a good story and just makes it more and more plausible to the electorate that Romney has no idea what it's like to live like the rest of us, no matter how hard he tries. Each flub makes us trust him less not because he's not in touch with people but because he's not learning; he keeps making the same basic mistake! He's not a good political candidate. It's so easy to change the rhetoric and optics and make it acceptable. It's so easy to talk about the values that all people who work hard and treat people well have. It's so easy for him to be rich and say the important policy things that he needs to say. But he keeps trying to "connect" in ways that just make him look insincere and fake. He needs to wear his suit. That's what businessmen wear. They don't wear jeans. He can tell us his dog stories, just leave out the part that it was strapped onto the top of his car, hurtling down the road at 65 miles per hour. All his substantive viewpoints are overshadowed by those dang trees that are the right height.

Buy Black Redux

2012-02-29T15:53:00.000-08:00

Now after I completed reading the Mother Jones article about Maggie Anderson, again, I went to the comments section expecting to read some mundane comments about how great it was for Anderson to support business in her community. "You go girl!" was what I expected to read.

But, to my surprise, there was comment after comment about how racist she was. I'm confused. When a woman decided to cook only recipes from Julia Child and blog about it, they made a blockbuster movie about the experience. A man decided to live the literal way the bible states, for one year, grew a beard and wore burlap sack all day, no one blinked an eye. Here a woman decided to support businesses of people who looked like her or had her cultural background because she felt, as a middle class woman during tough economic times, she should support business in her cultural community...for one year. Now SHE'S the racist?

She's not asking for a new government program. She wasn't saying that it's all 'whitey's fault.' She did an experiment to prove a point: Black people are more consumers than producers, there are few black businesses in primarily black communities, and Black people don't necessarily support their own businesses; all of which have a negative impact on employment, graduation rates, and a sense of hopelessness in inner city communities. She decided to use her hard earned money to support people of her community. Isn't that supposed to be a good thing? You all have to help me on this because I just don't get it. Read for yourself:

If a white person write this article about white businesses, everyone would be shouting "KKK"., progressives should stop being racist, white progressives should forgive their past racism and follow conservatives lead and see individuals as individuals. That's what conserving America is about. We are Americans and not members of protected classes. This person should take a close hard look at her racism.

Why can't we just be people?
Response: Because then minorities would have no one to blame for their problems. They keep racism alive and well, but are comfortable with it, when they justify it for themselves.

Anderson is doing just the right thing. As a white man i don't see her attitude racist at all. If there is more money going to black business there will be more career opportunities for entrepreneurs and millions of new jobs for African Americans too.

She should stop being racist and just buy American. I would never think of buying from white owned businesses exclusively....that would be biased and racist. She is actually lucky if she finds much in walmart that is even made in the USA.

Black History Month Action Item: Blacks Must Invest More In Their Own Communities

2012-02-28T09:59:00.000-08:00

I love when people see a need in their communities and just go for it. It's how entrepreneurs are born. Best known for his recent work on the "The Wire", Wendell Pierce was my acting coach when I was a kid at Howard University Children's Theatre, so I have been watching his acting career with great pride. Recently he has decided to give back to his community in New Orleans by creating and funding a chain of grocery stores called Sterling Farms, named after his father. He was inspired by Michelle Obama spotlighting food deserts in inner city communities and felt that instead of charity, he would fill a void in the community he grew up in.

Says Pierce:

"One of the richest countries in the history of the world having communities where people have to go over half an hour to get to fresh produce and food is unacceptable. And I feel as though the two can coexist, that you can actually be a successful business by filling that need. Classic Economy 101: fill the need, there is a demand, supply and demand."

Here's an excerpt from a recent profile on him in Mother Jones:

MJ: Speaking of encouraging fresh and local food consumption, I just saw a giant bus ad: "Chicken McNuggets, 20 for $4.99." That's 25 cents a pop. How do you compete with that?

WP: You have to compete with it. Everybody says, "How are you going to compete with fast food, with all these low-cost choices?" There's nothing else competing with them! They have a monopoly in the community! So that's the challenge. You have to make it affordable…. We'll have the community actively participating in the store, and having access to those foods, and have chefs come in to show them how to prepare good, healthy meals, and at the same time have access to affordable, healthy choices. I'll compete with the nuggets.

Mother Jones, as part of their Black History Month coverage, also spotlighted journalist Maggie Anderson's attempt to "buy black" in her community. What she found is something that I have found to be true myself: It's very difficult to find black owned and operated businesses in black communities.

Oh, the worst thing was what we learned about economies in black neighborhoods. We assumed, just like other little ethnic enclaves like Little Italy or Greek Town or Chinatown, that for predominantly black neighborhoods all the black businesses there would be owned by the local people. But easily over 90 percent of the businesses on the West Side{of chicago}—and it's the same way all over the country—are owned by people who are not black and do not live in that community. So it's not a "buy local" thing, because these folks set up shop in the black community, sell their wares, make their money, hardly ever employ the local people there—and they put the steel bar over the door, pack up at 6:30, get in their car, drive to their suburb, and take that money with them. And that was the whole reason that these communities suffer the way they do: The everyday exit of the wealth in those neighborhoods directly leads to social crises there.

So I'm literally walking around and talking to people, "Is there a black-owned restaurant, or a black-owned dry cleaner?" and folks are looking at me like I'm insane. And if I didn't know this, I'm sure that folks outside the black community don't have this as part of their reality or part of their picture for black America. When we talk about black people, the black situation, problems in the black community, you know, we start with, "Black kids are least likely to graduate from school; black unemployment is four times higher than the national average," all these numbers. But why can't we include that over 90 percent of businesses in the black community are not owned by black people or local residents? If we were to add that to the conversation, maybe folks would say, "Oh, well no wonder things are so bad there," and start thinking about things in a different way instead of allowing those awful numbers to be a reflection of our propensities. Why is it that my people are just supposed to be the perpetual consumer class, and everyone else is supposed to benefit from our money?

She makes a very good point. The reason many people feel hopeless in inner city America is because there is no job waiting for them. If they can't rap, sing or dance, make beats, or do something athletic with a ball, many of them don't see a way out of their situations. Businesses in their communities, by and large, not only tend not to hire people who look like them, but these businesses tend to hire FAMILY. A lot of small businesses are family run, especially in the early stages.

More importantly, we do have a monied class in our community, and like Wendall Pierce, it needs to decide to create products and services that are needed in our community and not just buy a house with marble countertops and star in basketball housewives while driving an expensive set of cars.

The entrepreneur that I look up to the most is Magic Johnson. I wish there were more Johnson's in the world, and not because my mom's maiden name is Johnson. He took his wealth from his career as an extraordinary basketball player and has created a business empire that resonates today in a great many communities. He proved that black inner city residents want products and services too. His creation of movie theater complexes in Watts, CA and Harlem, USA completely changed these areas. Creating an artistic anchor in the community paved the way for other big box stores to move in. Countless other urban centers, like Newark and Washington, DC have used this same basic model to spark business in their communities by investing in arts centers to attract tourism and nighttime entertainment. Harlem started to flourish because after people went to the movies, they wanted something to eat, or wanted to listen to some music at a club, or buy some clothes before hand, or go to a spa. All of these types of businesses are flourishing in Harlem now. They employ people in the community and people from outside Harlem visit and spend money there regularly.

So it's a two pronged approach: we need to create businesses at every level, and those with money in the black community need to diversify their business ideas, not just limiting their vision to a fashion or liquor line. Then we as black people need to patronize those businesses because as my mother always used to say: We've got to support the business in our community because if we don't support us, who will?

It is high time for black people on all points of the wealth ladder to consciously decide that we will invest more within our communities. With more money going into those local businesses, they will hire more workers, hopefully lifting everyone up.

Romney on Syria echoes Obama's Libya strategy

2012-02-26T22:03:00.000-08:00

I love Fareed Zakaria because he tells it like it is. Mitt Romney's response in the Arizona republican debate concerning what he would do in Syria was actually a good one. It makes sense to study the situation to have a good idea who the players on the ground are, unlike what Bush/Cheney did before entering both the Iraq and Afgan wars. Such a process will hopefully continue to shine a bright light on the brutal massacre that's going on. Now that Syria is basically turning into a modern day Bosnia/Rwanda genocidal situation, and the US has neither the funds nor political will to either enter or sustain another war, especially with a possible nuclear Iran in the offing, Romney wants to work with the players in the area.

Mitt Romney: With Assad in trouble, we need to communicate to the Alawites, his friends, his ethnic group, to say, look, you have a future if you'll abandon that guy Assad. We need to work with Saudi Arabia and with Turkey to say, 'You guys provide the kind of weaponry that's needed to help the rebels inside Syria.' This is a critical time for us. If we can turn Syria and Lebanon away from Iran, we finally have the capacity to get Iran to pull back.

What annoys me is, Romney's essentially advocating for Syria what Obama did in Libya. And since republicans have nothing good to say about anything Obama has done, this really sticks in my craw.

Zakaria:

"You're used to hearing such, frankly, nonsense on the campaign trail, because people just make wild accusations. [Mitt Romney's answer] was a sensible, thoughtful, sophisticated answer.

In an odd sense, of course, what Mitt Romney is suggesting is a version of Barack Obama's strategy in Libya. In Libya, we let the Europeans take the lead and we said we will support what you do, but you guys have to be out in front. What he's suggesting is Turkey and Saudi Arabia should take the lead and we would support it.

I'm sure he's not going to call it leading from behind, but that's sort of what he's suggesting."

Hmmm….Zakaria makes it sound as if Romney's approach would allow other nations to take the lead but have the US supply those nations with diplomatic cover and possible outside military aid. Thereby our "imperialistic" hands would not be the ones that toppled the regime, more arab/islamic friendly governments would be at the head of the pack. A sound strategy. Obama may use it and again, Romney's policy breakthroughs would be used to deal with domestic political expediences. Maybe instead of leading from behind, the strategy could be called "Leading like a Mormon" or since rich businessmen know how to delegate: "Leading through delegation of fiduciary and military resources…" Or maybe you'd just call it rational and thoughtful execution of of foreign policy. Just somebody save those people, I really don't care where the ideas come from.

Mae Jamison, a real life Captain Kirk

2012-02-25T13:17:00.002-08:00

Ok, this may be a bit of old news to some of you but I'm still excited nonetheless, because with this story the sci-fi geek and "black woman rise" diva in me can come out at the same time! Fans of Star Trek and space exploration unite! A black woman, the former space shuttle astronaut Mae Jamison, will be heading the project charged with figuring out how a 100 year, multi generational exploration of star systems outside our solar system would work. Big, smiling sigh….I know people are hungry down here, and we've got problems here on this planet, but I'm just geeked out about it. It's as if the Arthur Clarke Rama series is coming to life (which featured a black woman as savior of all humanity, while at the same time depicting blacks and hispanics as utter idiots. 2001 this book was not). Shoot, I didn't wanna be Uhura when I watched Star Trek, even though the episode when she wore the fly midriff baring outfit and the thigh high boots was CRAZY! I wanted to be Kirk or Spock doing all the cool sh%t, saving the universe from destruction from the Klingons, even though later the Klingons became cool as hell later in the next generation.

But again I digress. SEE! I can't help it! This is sooooo cool. I don't wanna go on the trip, because it's gonna be unpleasant and dirty and I don't wanna crash on Mars and have to set up a camp of plants so I can breathe like Don Cheadle did in the movie Red Planet. I also don't want to become fat because my bones have lost their density like they did in Wall-e. But I wanna get the updates and pictures when it happens. I want to see what's out there. Maybe bug people like in Orson Scott Card's Ender series. OMG! I'm soooo geeked out it's ridiculous.

Conflicted by Apple's labor practices

2012-02-24T20:08:00.004-08:00

I am so upset because I'm not about to give up my iPhone nor the MacBook Pro that I am typing this blog on. But…what are we as a low-priced wal-mart based culture to do when the King of computer hipness, Apple, turns into a Kathy Lee Gifford "I didn't know how my t-shirts were being produced by essentially slave labor type" of company? How does that work? It's one thing when your clothing or toys are made with this kind of cheap labor because you can simply buy a different brand of clothing or buy it used from a consignment/thrift store so you don't have the taint of supporting "The Man". But…buy or use something different than my precious, I-worked-hard-for-this-and-waited-until-my-contract-had-run-out-but-just-said-"what-de-hell" -I'll-just-pay-the cut-off-fee-because-my-old-phone-sucks, iPhone? Ooooo, that's hard. I've been a Mac person all my adult life. Sigh…But we can't turn our faces away just because we like a product. We can hold the maker of our product accountable. Suggestions?

Joshua Topolsky of the Washington Post writes:

So it would seem that a conversation has started that is rather significant, both to the electronics industry as a whole and to the wider globalized world. We’re starting to discover that the shiny toys we buy and use don’t just magically appear. Producing them requires hard work from many thousands of people, work that isn’t always fair or humane.

Yet there's another question, one which may be more important than “what is Apple doing?” That question is what are we doing — as individuals, as governments — to enforce fair treatment around the world? Are Americans willing to pay more for an iPhone if it means fair treatment of workers? Would you be willing to wait longer to get the latest gadget if you knew it was going to be humanely produced? If you didn’t have to worry that the labor could drive someone to suicide?

And it’s not just about Apple. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company may be the innovation leader and biggest earner in technology, but it is not the only player in this game. Far from it. The places where iPhones come from also produce products for Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Sony, Lenovo and more.

This isn’t an Apple problem, it’s an industry wide problem.

More to the point, it’s a human rights problem, one that needs to be dealt with head-on. We can’t sit passively by, complaining that Foxconn isn’t fair to its workers while also demanding the lowest-cost electronics and fastest iteration of new products. As consumers, we have a responsibility to demand that the companies who make our technology do better than this. That they do better than the status quo.

Santorum Tax Return Reax

2012-02-23T19:43:00.000-08:00

Responses from an article about Santorum releasing his taxes…the comments are always, always, always better than the actual story. Just classic:

If the man is not bright enough to save his own money why should we let him play with ours?

When told of this, Romney replied, ” Well, I guess Rick needs a better tax attorney, or a Swiss bank account and put the rest in the Cayman Islands ! No reason in the world, he should be paying more than 15%.”

Santorum pays more because his taxes are based on the salary he earns. Romney is not paid a salary, he pays taxes on the dividends he earns from investments. Capital gains from investments are taxed at a lower tax rate. Its not Romneys fault that the IRS sets the percentages for different incomes. Its not illegal so let it go.

”So both Romney and Santorum paid what the law allocated them to pay. In other words, both men obeyed the law. Was it a slow news day or something??????”

Agree with others on this site … if Santorum … who makes more than I do … cannot manage his own finances and understand the tax code enough to minimize his taxes … no way can this career politician manage our country’s budget and get us out of this financial mess his fellow career politicians got us into or were too clueless to avoid. We need some savvy business men to get us out of this financial mess and to avoid any future ones … I don’t trust career politicians with no private sector experience to help us … I see only Romney and Paul as the only two non career politicians savvy enough to know how to get us out of this mess.

Matrix Chicken

2012-02-23T16:44:00.000-08:00

My brother and I were talking about this the other night. Certain ethicists think that lobotomizing animals used for food would answer criticisms of food animal treatment during their growth cycle. If the animal has no frontal lobe, then they have no emotional/spiritual needs. The body then can be treated in the best way for us to grow food for our increasing population. Problem solved right?

Just asking: when you watched The Matrix, did you feel it was cool for the machines to, through a complex computer program, lobotomize humans in order to supply their ever growing need for energy? Do the chickens need a Morpheus to guide Cluck-master-Neo to break the chains of…head shaking…
it's not even worth it. Sooo not cool. I'm not eating any matrix chicken.

Money working for money?

2012-02-22T12:49:00.000-08:00

Santorum has got Mitt on this one. Watch the video…he makes Mitt look so out of touch. The Santorums made a d**n good living: $3 million in about 4 years. He's not poor, or middle class, or even upper middle class…he's rich. But he pays taxes at a rate that seems to make some sense: about 28%. This is not even close to the approximately 15% of taxes that Romney pays on $21 million. Frankly, both of these presidential candidates's tax rates seems to buttress President Obama's point of taxing millionaires and the super wealthy at a higher rate.

Rick Santorum WORKS for his money and most of it, by his reckoning, is earned and not dividend income from stocks. So he pays the higher 30% tax rate. He's certainly well off, but regular people understand his kind of wealth. After he left the senate, he had similar issues that most people have had, he lost equity in his house, he has had to take care of a disabled child, kids in college; he's had to hustle (in relative terms) for his money. He says he didn't really invest his income into various stocks, EFTS, mutual funds and bond combinations to earn money for his retirement -- sure you didn't -- but I'll take him at his word. However, if he did, his dividend income should not be taxed at the same rate, but at 15% because, as the republicans say, that money has already been taxed; it's criminal to tax it twice. "Keep the capitol gains at 15%!" the republicans say, "Matter of fact, lower it!" As a person with a small stock portfolio, I'm all for relatively low capitol gains taxes, cause I ain't got a lot of capitol gains. Tax them heavily and like a weight on a liquid dieter, them gains would float away.

Here's where the Santorum/Romney dueling tax rates make Obama's point: Romney's money came not from his labor, but from his money's labor. He originally made a lot of money and then invested it accordingly, and now lives off the proceeds. "Great!" you say, "I'd like to have my money do all the work for me too. Why should he pay his taxes twice?" However, he's not paying taxes twice -- he's paying it ONCE, and once only -- at a rate HALF what everyone else is paying; on $21 MILLION -- money he makes each and every year whether he lifts a "just the right sized" finger or not! This is how CEO's of large companies make out like fat rats. They accept their pay from dividends, not earned income, so it is taxed only once and at a lower rate. Minnie, the grocery store check out girl can't make that choice. Dr. Simmons, the gastroenterologist at John's Hopkins making $250K can't make that choice either.

The Obama administration has conceded the earlier $250,000 limit and raised it to $1million for the point at which the so called "Buffet Rule" would take effect. Remember, annual INCOME, not overall wealth, decides the rate at which one should pay. So say you made $999,999.99 in dividend income. You would not be taxed at the higher rate, but those who make more, should pay more. The idea is that, when you are making in yearly stock income under $1million, you're probably working hard for your money, even though at that level, don't get it twisted -- y'all is rich. But those whose MONEY is singing the the famous Donna Summer song, "She works hard for the money!" to the tune of many millions, should be taxed at the same rate as those who actually wear a waitress outfit in white orthopedic shoes dancing in a real diner to make money the old fashioned way. It's only fair.

What do we do about Syria??

2012-02-20T22:13:00.000-08:00

I'm watching Anderson Cooper this evening and they're talking about Syria. It's horrible. The government is killing it's people with impunity. The world seems paralyzed as to what to do. I find myself getting frustrated by the US's current inertia on the matter, but even more so at the rest of the world. The USA has surely done some dastardly stuff in the past, but most of the time its outward goals are positive, especially in the past 20-30 years. There's talk of a proxy war going on with Russia and Iran pulling the strings, but…when it comes down to it, THOUSANDS are being slaughtered and thousands more have no food, shelter, or medical attention in the middle of winter, and yet the country's all glued to minutiae such as which sweater vest Rick Santorum is going to wear next while he talks about how if he was president, he would home school his kids in the White House.

Even though there is clearly not means to ameliorate the situation, good people of conscious should wake up and demand that SOMETHING is done to help these people.

Jack Cafferty at CNN.com writes:

Another deadly day of bloodshed... as the world stands idly by and watches Syria's government murdering its own people.
Opposition groups say more than 50 people were killed today. Hundreds more were reportedly killed in the city of Homs over the weekend.
And the killing has become butchery. One Syrian told the New York Times of seeing the beheaded bodies of women and children lying on the roads.
And the civilized world looks on and does nothing.

A syrian activist called "Danny" says this:

"The women died. Children died. We have more than 30 children dead from four days ago. We have loads of children injured. My friends are in a hospital. I hope they'll be OK. Lots of them have been hit by fighters yesterday. (Some were hit) today just because of trying to cross the street.

Snipers hit women, children, men, kids, doesn't matter. The Syrian army - I'm not going to call it the Syrian army, they have no humanity in them, they kill anything in front of them. They are hitting civilian houses.”

This is worse than bad. This has been going on for a several months. The world needs to step up. The United States has been a leader, whether asked for or not, in the past. I have to say, I'm kind of tired that we, the US, seem to be doing all the heavy lifting in the world. It's time for the rest of the world, who seem to think that the US is so heavy handed and autocratic in dealing with world issues, to demonstrate their leadership capabilities. Obama began pushing in this direction with his republican loathed, "leading from behind" strategy on Libya. And frankly, that turned out pretty well. But it's time for us to be the follower, the backup, the muscle that stands in the corner while England, Japan, Australia, dangit, ANYONE steps up and addresses this insane business.

Show Some Respect, MSM!

2012-02-16T21:50:00.000-08:00

Can we just leave Whitney ALONE??! I am so tired of every news story, every so called "friend" who Piers Morgan and Anderson Cooper have on their show to figure out "just how wasted was she?!" Can't we just let the woman rest in peace and let her family deal with the inevitable hurt, pain and anger that she was taken away so suddenly? I am tired of hearing, "I had nothing but respect for her, BUT…" and then go on to say that she was doing drugs, or she should have had better handlers, or she was drunk that morning or any other crap that comes to their mind. And it's all out of "love" mind you….

I turn to these news shows to watch THE NEWS; about politics, war, diplomacy, education, legal issues…the news of the day. The occasional celebrity info is fine, but do we really have to go on and on and on? She is important to the national discourse because she's Whitney Houston, not just any old celebrity. But… can we have the ATTRACTIVE pictures of the woman up? It actually hurts my feelings to see the picture of her looking jacked up. It's not dignified. It's not o-k! It's Whitney. Show some frickin respect!

Plight of the Poor and Working Poor

2012-02-14T09:09:00.000-08:00

After I watch this video all I want to say is…SEE?! SEE?! Everybody wants to judge poor people's eating habits, savings practices, work ethic…that is…UNTIL YOU BECOME POOR! Then rice-a-MSG-roni is fine, cause you're just trying to make it. "We have teenage jobs!" selling shoes and working at a bakery, "and we're trying to raise three kids. We're scared. It's hard…sniff sniff. We've looked for jobs for TWO YEARS?! We don't know what we're going to do!"

I don't mean to be insensitive because it is hard. It is depressing. It IS frustrating. It's not fair. You DO work hard. You try to save money. You get as educated as best as you can. BUT… poor, and the working poor, have been saying this - - FOR YEARS!!! They have been having it hard for DECADES. No one has been listening and as a matter of fact, so far as some are concerned, all the problems they've been having are due to their lack of virtue, perseverance, and planning.

But let's get this straight: the working poor can and does include some teachers, daycare workers and university professors. Yet for years there has been this cynical mantra in the public discourse that says, when you're part of the poor and working poor, you're just sucking at the addictive teat of government. Poor people can't make mistakes like everyone else. Poor need to eat healthier meals and should work harder to feed their family fruits and vegetables rather than cheap sodas and boxed mac and cheese mixes. Why don't poor people spend more time with their kids, making sure they do their homework and seeing to their needs rather than just letting them watch TV all the time. Children should be getting sleep, and not taken to work with their hard working parent at midnight, while they clean up someone's office building at 2am, because they have no one to watch them. (True story). It's ALL their fault. "Get it together, Poor People!" says the conventional wisdom of many.

Now that true middle and upper middle class people are joining the working poor due to the harsh economic realities of The Great Recession, they are beginning to understand. When YOU become a part of the story, you find out that not having enough money in a very rich society is HELLA HARD! The poor are just like us, just slobs like all of us. We are the poor, and the poor are us. They are no more or less virtuous, hard working or well meaning than anyone else. They just don't have enough money! Now that some of you don't have enough cash, maybe you'll be a tad bit more understanding…

Hip Hop Deconstructed...it's what we do

2012-02-12T11:38:00.000-08:00

Here is the essence, I mean the true essence of how musicians, especially Jazz musicians, think when we are learning or teaching how jazz or any other music works. This producer/musician did what I did, what my friends did, what our ancestors did. The end is the best part. It sounds like listening to a master saxophonist, like my husband Robert Landham, talk about how he learned the music. "I went to record stores, looked in the crates, and got the original record. I listened to what Miles Davis did over and over again, and then tried to re-create it." That's it. That's all it is.

Music is the greatest. thing. EVER.

RIP, Whitney...

2012-02-11T22:01:00.000-08:00

I just found out Whitney Houston passed away.

Whitney Houston is dead. I don't know why…it doesn't even matter why, now one of the greatest voices OF THE 20th CENTURY is gone. I am very, very, very sad. As a singer, one who is both a voice teacher and a professional, this hurts me in a place that I cannot describe. Whitney was a singer's singer; an awesome talent who knew how to use her voice well. She was the singer for all of us.

She was presented as a pop star, not a Black singer; and after a while, many black people were really pissed off with her because of it. It was the age old dumbness, i.e. the "not-black-enough-syndrome". Because her music did not reflect the heavy R&B/funk/soul roots of her own heritage, she was booed at the 1989 soultrain awards. From my vantage point, she spent the rest of her career working to regain her "black card" from her public. Stupid. Not business wise, but... I'm so frickin' tired of black people having to prove that they're black to other black people. It makes no sense. You may not like what the person does, the views they have, the way they speak, or the music they sing; but that does not make anyone any less of african descent than the day they were born.

Whitney Houston was a role model for every girl who wanted to sing. "The Greatest Love of All" was sung by me and my choir when I was a child and in high school because of how she sang it, not the original singer, George Benson. "One Moment in Time" was and still is one of the great graduation songs. Singing the national anthem at the super bowl during the first Gulf War was one of the most moving versions ever sung and did something that in my humble opinion was larger than just her singing it.

Whitney, singing not in an evening gown, but in a white jogging suit and a headband with red and blue trim, was fronting a classical orchestra singing like a modern version of Marion Anderson on the Steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Nobody protested her representing American ideals as the Daughters of the American Revolution did Marion in 1939. Everyone WANTED Whitney to represent America in a time of war during the most American of sports -- Football. African-Americans, through her, could now, officially feel as American as anybody else. We were not other, we were a part. When she sang the high notes and flashed a smile that she got through this extremely difficult song to sing, and raised her hands high, we all raised our hands with her --- all meaning, ALL, EVERYONE --- no matter the race, creed, sex, color, ethnicity -- all of us. We were all Americans at that point. We all cheered, we all cried, we all smiled. Together.

After all the drugs and the tragic vocal loss, this is how I'll remember Whitney. The great musical unifier. One of the greatest American voices of the century.

A Uniquely American Success Story

2012-02-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I bring up this woman, Felecia Hatcher of Feverish Ice Cream, because I think she's a great example of how our system is so advantageous to entreprenuers. She and her husband used to work at Nintendo and were laid off in 2008, the height of the US economic meltdown. So they began a business selling ice pops with flavors that appeal to adults, using ice cream carts purchased off craigslist.

Apple Martini. Apple Pie. Almond Butter. These three things did not have a lot in common until 28-year-old Felecia Hatcher came along and made them into ice cream and popsicle flavors.
Hatcher, who lives in Florida, has made a name for herself with Feverish, an aptly named line of gourmet ice cream trucks that cater to the state’s warm-weather residents year-round.

I'd eat them, sounds delish...But that's not the important point. The point is she started the business because she was unemployed. Ok, a lot of people do that. What's so special about that, you say? The greatness of America is that she had access to unemployment compensation, most likely for at least six to twelve months. The removal of unemployment benefits would be devastating to the US economy at this moment, not only because of lack of money churning in the consumer economy. Removal, or reduction of benefits, would not give enterprising individuals like this one the time to get their new business off the ground.

In this time of deciding whether or not we should be extending these benefits, let's look to this as an example.

Simon Johnson of the New York Times:

Extended unemployment benefits provide on average about $300 a week — one-third of the average weekly wage and only about 70 percent of the poverty level for a family of four. If you strip even this money from people who remain out of work through no fault of their own, you will push more individuals and families onto the streets and into shelters. The cost of providing those fallback services is very high — and much higher than providing unemployment benefits.

How does it help any economic recovery when the people who lose jobs cannot even afford to buy basic goods and services — enough to keep their family afloat?

Do you think that Hatcher and her husband could have started their successful venture having to worry about the above issues? If they couldn't find work, would it have been better for them to have gone onto welfare? Which is more cost effective in the long run: paying for unemployment insurance or having another house in foreclosure, another set of people who cannot purchase any goods and services, another person in despair who already feels feels bad because they can't find a job. America's strength is the understanding that risk needs a safety net too. Popsicle anyone?

ok I KNOW it's inflammatory but...

2012-02-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

...it's so daggum funny

This is what Roland Martin and every other person who screws up has to do to placate the offended organization. Insert Komen to insulted women and Mitt Romney to Poor People - or at least people who care about poor people…well maybe he doesn't have to do this much….

Komen Redux

2012-02-09T09:47:00.000-08:00

"Women felt betrayed and they had the tools and presence to do something about it." - Joanne Bamberger

Joanne Bamberger, better known as PunditMom, has written an excellent article that really encapsulates the whole debacle that is the meltdown of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The organization is probably finished, by her reckoning, for some very important reasons:

…I'm sure Komen never thought in a million years that women would react as viscerally as they have. And that's why the Komen Foundation is probably finished, because they misjudged their constituency...

But the real story in this whole fiasco is one that most have missed -- the role that women in online and social media had, and continue to have, in bringing attention to a story that Komen must have believed would go relatively unnoticed because the amount of money involved was such a small portion of Planned Parenthood's annual budget.

Though I have been blogging for a relatively short-time, it's quickly become apparent to me that the internet is one big Oprah network; it's ruled in large part by women. There is a site for everything a woman could want or need. There are 15,001 mommy bloggers, mommy political bloggers (me for one), women's health bloggers, fashion and gossip bloggers; you name it, if you're a woman, there is something for you. And these women know how to advocate for causes they believe in.

The fight against breast cancer is supremely personal to most women in a way many other causes are not. A true sisterhood was born around this one medical issue and the bonds of that sisterhood have only grown and become stronger over time. Women across the country have come together in support of each other to raise awareness for the need to fund the research for a breast cancer cure. We've walked together in pink t-shirts and we've taken money out of otherwise tight family budgets to donate to "the cure."
This sisterhood exists not only in real life, but in the virtual world, as well. And as anyone who is the least bit social media savvy knows, women rule online spaces. In the last few years, those women have created powerful brands and successful businesses out of knowing how to leverage those tools for maximum effect. How any organization could have failed to foresee that tech-savvy women, who are the same ones who've been their primary supporters, wouldn't use those same tools to fight back on behalf of loved ones who need the screening and preventive care services Planned Parenthood offers, is about the biggest corporate communications failure I've witnessed for a long time.

As I mentioned earlier, I received so many articles, petitions, and angry posts on Facebook about this issue that I couldn't escape - - unless I turned Facebook off completely. What Bamberger makes emphatic is that women don't like it when their lives are used as political fodder. The Komen foundation's decision came off as if it was using the discontinuation of grants to Planned Parenthood JUST to satisfy a political agenda. This is what really ticked women off; it didn't matter how much money the grant was for.

Kelli Goff at TheLoop21.com gave us 7 lessons learned from this fiasco. Here's what I think is perhaps the most important lesson of those she lists:

6. Women's health is not a women's issue.Women's health issues are often talked about in the media and in the world of politics as if they only matter to women. But for every female activist, legislator and voter whose life has been touched by a gender specific health scare, be it breast cancer or a high-risk pregnancy, there is a man whose life they have touched. Many of those men came out in full force this week, among them Mayor Michael Bloomberg whose $250,000 matching pledge to Planned Parenthood inspired the Livestrong Foundation, founded by cycling legend and cancer-survivor Lance Anrmstrong, to pledge $100,000 to the organization.

And that's brings us to the real point: This was not a woman's issue, this was a human issue. A breast cancer survivor is not just a woman but a daughter, a sister, a mother, a cousin, a co-worker, a grandmother, or even just a friend. These are human relationships not defined solely by gender or age. Everyone is touched by this issue.

We're laughing with you, Mitt, not at you...

2012-02-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

Funny. So funny!

After the losses to Santurom, despite outspending him 41-1, I think Romney might want to read this book. Just substitue in "republicans" for "guys" in the subtitle.

Dear Political Campaigns: I don't mind if you use my songs!

2012-02-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

There are artists who don't want to let republican candidates use their songs. Not me, I think I'd let 'em use one of mine.

Perhaps the republican party might want to use my song "Like Rain" to express it's, um, sort-of-devotion to Mitt Romney:

"Love is like an Ocean/Never ending always going
Your love was so appealing/It was like the calm before the storm

But is wasn't Like Rain: It was shelter that had no front door
But it wasn't Like Rain: It was armor so heavy it made you sore
But it wasn't Like Rain: We were two, never one making war
And it wasn't Like Rain…yeah heah…"

Or maybe the tea party might like my song "Save Me" as an ode to Romney:

"Oh save me from, loving you /I just promised myself that I would not fall in love so soon"

Libertarians might consider using my cover of Janet Jackson's "When I Think Of You" for a Ron Paul ad:

"When I think of you... nothing else seems to matter
When I think of you... all I think about it our love"

How about the track I did with Landslide "Its Not Over" as the theme song for Gingrich's first and/or second wife:

"When we were together at first is was good/Made me feel just like a woman should Then you decided that I was hooked/No more hugs and lovin' just a woman just to clean and cook Became a playa, didn't even try to hide/I said something you said don't cramp my style Took it all I was in denial/Not you want me back and you want me to be your wife..."This love's over no discussion This love's over You must be crazy if you think you're gonna be my man."

Dear President Obama: Please feel free to consider using my song "Everything is Beautiful" as your new campaign theme song.

"It's time to live our lives just like the sun is always out even when there's rain
Lets open up our eyes and see the beauty in our lives even when there's pain..."

or Obama could re-use the song his 2008 campaign inspired me to write, "Change the World"

"I want to change the World, don't you want to change the world?"

But what they all might wanna use is a song from my NEW album, "Mommy, What's A Depression?"
called "I'ma Hustla"

Times is rough
Gotta put gas in my car goto work
Yeah it's tough
Belt is tight
Gotta put my kid through school pay the bills no help in sight, oh no
But I got my eyes on the prize
Gotta Make it work cause I got one life
I'ma hustla

Stay tuned for MUCH more news about my new album, we're in the final stages of getting it ready for you now! ;-)

Komen/Planned Parenthood Follies

2012-02-07T16:01:00.000-08:00

This is a fascinating article about the whole Komen/Planned Parenthood scandal. When this first started hitting the news, it hit Facebook first. I got posting after posting after posting after posting telling me that I should sign a petition and tweet my disapproval, and how evil the decision not to fund planned parenthood was.

Mary Elizabeth Williams:

It started with a tweet. And in the end, that’s what won the war. On Tuesday, Planned Parenthood sent out a no-punches-pulling alert that “Susan G. Komen caves under anti-choice pressure, ends funding for breast cancer screenings at PP health centers.” By Friday, Komen for the Cure had said it was sorry, and reversed its decision.

Within minutes of that Tuesday bombshell, the tale had become not just a news story but a social media explosion, with a flurry of responses pouring out across Facebook, Twitter and Komen’s own message boards – overwhelmingly disapproving of Komen for the Cure’s severing of its ties to Planned Parenthood. And in the process, it became an object lesson in how to handle a crisis, how to make it worse, and then how to fix it.

To me, this issue became a text book case of how to politicize that which should not be political: the supporting of a a cure for breast cancer. On various comment boards you heard people from both sides say that they will no longer support Komen for the Cure because: insert partisan rhetoric here. THIS is what the television, radio, and internet battle between the right and the left hath wrought. Charities that were previously places where we could all come together have become new places for partisan bickering thereby enabling the news media to run another story for the insatiable 24 hour news cycle. In the words of the great thinker Rodney King: Can't we all just get along?!

Newt's bomb throwing may win the battle, but loses the war...

2012-02-06T21:11:00.000-08:00

Ever since Newt Gingrich first made his "Food Stamp President" statement, I've been wanting to blog about it. A lot. But the news cycle has been FAST. I just have not been able to keep up with everything. I mean -- D'angelo is BACK and performing! That's important. He's been gone for a long time. It's a HUGE story; at least to me. So, I have kept on my laptop screen all the articles I have seen that have dealt with this issue; for weeks. It's quite an impressive list... you should see it. I might even blog about one of them in a bit.

But what I have come to concerning Gingrich's statements, is that this is just politics. Politicians will always use whatever advantage they think they have to reach the constituency they want to reach. I think Peter Beinhart makes a very important point about why Newt Gingrich's bomb throwing rhetoric just doesn't work in the long run. Thus far it has been effective in helping keep his campaign alive far longer than most could have ever imagined. But his use of such divisive language will have consequences far beyond this presidential race.

Gingrich’s problem isn’t racism; it’s ignorance. Only someone profoundly ignorant of African-American politics would suggest that black Americans have spent the past few decades seeking food stamps, not jobs. We celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, after all, in part because of the speech King gave at an event called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. If you look at the budgets proposed by the Congressional Black Caucus over the years, you’ll see that they often include huge, FDR-style government jobs programs. Gingrich may not think that’s the best way to go about providing jobs, but to suggest that African-Americans and their leaders don’t consider jobs important just reveals how shut off from Africa-American politics he actually is.

The type of rhetoric Gingrich has been using just makes the vast majority of people of color mad. People are tired of having to prove that they want to work hard just like everybody else. Perhaps the more significant fall out, though, is that people outside Gingrich's base feel like there is no place for them within the republican party. That someone who is considered the conservative frontrunner for the republican presidential nomination can call the first african-american president a "food stamp president", a transparently loaded, blatant mischaracterization, suggests there is little to no room within the republican party for minorities whose political views lean conservative. Those non-whites who actually vote republican or are leaders in the republican party are often looked at less as idiots than turncoats by fellow minorities. "If they can say something like this, how can you possibly trust these people?" is what the many of the minority electorate would seem to think.

Newsone.com, a black news source, begins a recent article by noting that factcheck.org has disproved the original food stamp statement and then goes on to compare, negatively, Bush's economic inheritance with Obama's economic inheritance.

FactCheck.org has looked into Newt Gingrich’s claim that Barack Obama had put more people on Food Stamps than any President in American history and has found that it was false. More people were put on the EBT debit card program that replaced Food Stamps under George W. Bush than Obama.

Gingrich also failed to take into account that during Bush’s last year the amount of people receiving EBT tripled and the fact that while Bush inherited a $236 billion surplus from Bill Clinton, Obama inherited a $5 trillion deficit and a recession from Bush.

The Root.com has run headlines such as this:

The Food Stamp Fallacy

When will Republicans be honest about who really gets the most out of welfare programs?

Given this context, black conservatives like Shelby Steele just seem blind, even though Steele, in particular, raises some valid points.

The problem with all these liberal good works is that they associate blackness with permanent inferiority. They don’t really believe in the fundamental human equality of the people they claim to help. They want to be valued for their good intentions, never for their effectiveness in uplift. I grew to hate these programs and policies because they not only believed in my inferiority more than my capacity for excellence but also encouraged me to use black weakness — the inferiority imposed by four centuries of brutal oppression — as leverage and entitlement in the larger society.

There is a place for the conservative platform in our political discourse. I myself don't lean that way, quite obviously, but I acknowledge it's an actual set of philosophies that has validity. The two predominant political ideologies in american thought, progressivism and conservatism, need to duke it out in the public square from time to time because such debate allows the electorate to best consider how policy shapes American daily life. I personally know, for example, plenty of people who think that welfare is a horrible institution which leads to inter-generational addiction to government handouts. Many of these people have dashikis on with LONG dread-locks.

Newt, Romney, and the rest of the republican party leaders need to have a long talk with God, because Jesus didn't talk to the money changers, he hung out with the pimps, hos, and lepers…not that I'm saying that poor and disenfranchised people necessarily are pimps and…oh well…you know what I mean..;-)

Further Exploration of The Myth Of The Magic Negro

2012-02-05T09:49:00.000-08:00

Toure was apparently not happy about the film, "The Help". In his review of the film, he wrote that he's tired of the "magic negro" affect. Toure's certainly not the first person to use such terminology, but he's very apt in his discussion of it as depicted in "The Help". Check out his description of this quintessential character of American cinema:

They are blacks who arrive in the lives of whites with more knowledge and soul and go on to teach whites about life, thus making white lives better….Magical negroes exist so that the knowledge and spirit that comes from blackness can enlighten or redeem whites who are lost or broken.

This phenomenon is is something I have been mildly annoyed with (and bemused by) for years. Here, for example, is why I hated The Green Mile: the strongest, most spiritual Black man, who was literally MAGIC, and hence had the ability to free himself at ANY TIME, was IN JAIL; he was not "intellectually gifted" and thus did not help himself. Instead HE MADE HIS JAILERS BETTER PEOPLE. Just ain't right, especially when we look at the plot setup for the film from this perspective. And we as moviegoers have to suspend a WHOLE LOT of belief/reality in order to choose NOT to see things from this angle, in my opinion. Somehow our collective acculturation allows for this leap of logic, given how successful The Green Mile was commercially. Yet there is something far more important about this magical affect black people have on the larger "majority" (ie white) population. The majority American collective consciousness has voted into the presidency one of these "magic negroes" and now many are mad that he hasn't made good, hasn't sufficiently played the role as intended.

Barack Hussein Obama was first called the Magic Negro in a song made popular by Rush Limbaugh during the 2008 election cycle. Besides being hella funny, Limbaugh used the song to suggest Obama wasn't "black enough" and therefore whites would vote for him; to imply that since he didn't have the "street civil-rights cred" of an Al Sharpton, blacks would not get the justice they were looking for (which is probably true). I don't often agree with Rush Limbaugh, but in this case he was onto something. Cognitive dissonance notwithstanding, still I believe he only scratched the surface of the subject. In the Magic Negro Mythology, there is always a crisis in which some white person, usually from the mythic "when we were colored" time, you know, back when black people did just fine despite brutal racism [see Whoopi Goldberg in "Corrina Corrina", Will Smith in "The Legend of Bagger Vance"], is in trouble and in need of a good, stern talkin' to. Well, America in 2008 was in a crisis alright. The good ole "thank God I'm a country" boy ruined the economy, and we were falling fast. Obama stepped in and looked cool and in control. "Magic Negro help us!" said the larger american community. Does everyone remember the coverage of his inauguration? Before he'd signed anything into law, folks were already comparing his first term in office to the greatness of Lincoln. He received the Noble Peace Prize within six months of becoming president.

These days many of those same previously effusive people don't like Obama nearly as much because, as Mitt Romney inaccurately put it,"He didn't make the economy what it is, he just made it worse". He didn't fulfill his mythological requirements of making everything better IMMEDIATELY, so for many people, he failed. Dang it, apparently he's just human after all.

Republicans are saying the policies Obama put in place didn't really help the economy. That they would have been able to turn everything around much quicker. He's the worst president ever! Nice guy, just not a good manager; most polarizing President of all TIME. But…the jobs numbers have gone up for the fifth month in row and unemployment is down to 8.3%. We've had twenty-three straight months of positive job creation. While not good enough, things are moving in the right direction, concede most all the pundits. So let me get this straight: we were in TWO hot wars, oil EXPLODED out of the gulf and ran all over erry-thang, Japan went, literally, radio active, (Godzilla is actually forming in the goo surrounding the reactors now) and the countries of the European Union one by one have been taking turns flirting with bankruptcy. This has all happened in the space of…three years! All Bill Clinton had to deal with was Newt acting like a spoiled brat and some woman with bodily fluids on a dress. Currently, we are only engaged in ONE war, Europe is not imploding this instant, we are no longer in a self-imposed debt crisis… whew…we are starting to emerge from the abyss. But that's not good enough, because Obama's Magical Negroness did not fulfill it's actual purpose:

They are there only to help whites. This relates to screenwriter James McBride’s recent assertion that in cinematic terms … [Blacks are] there to service white characters — not always literally serving them but functioning as a vehicle for them to show or prove their morality and heroism or both. We appear as mere props in white lives. McBride says, “Only when the boss decides your story intersects with his or her life is your story valid. Because you’re a kind cultural maid. You serve up the music, the life, the pain, the spirituality. You clean house.”

House Majority Speaker John Boehner does not look heroic. Heck, he can barely get his caucus together. Frankly, in my humble opinion, there isn't a non person of color in government today who looks larger-than-life or heroic against the imposing presence of Obama. So where's Neo to Obama's Morpheus? For, based on the Magic Negro Mythology rules, Obama cannot be the actual hero of the story. That narrative wouldn't sell tickets and there would be no overseas box office. And he's got a black wife and kids. These just limit his appeal. Maybe he should dump Michelle and bring Eva Mendes in as first lady….He's proven he can sing like black folks -- check. He plays basketball - check. Now if he only he could see dead people….ahhh…feel much better now….

My take on Viola Davis

2012-02-04T21:14:00.000-08:00

Since the release of "Red Tails" a few weeks ago, there's been quite a bit of focus on Viola Davis. Here is a woman who is talented and attractive, yet not being offered roles that merit her acting stature. There's been a group of people, perhaps most notably Charlize Theron, who've said, "You gotta stop talking like that, you're hot as Sh*t", meaning it doesn't matter that Viola Davis is a dark skinned black woman. That she should be able to get roles just as easy as Theron. Allison Samuels of The Daily Beast puts it well:

How sweet of Theron to say, and how thoroughly misguided and offensive as well…
In Hollywood, where even legendary filmmaker George Lucas had to fight and ultimately use his own money to get an all-black film (Red Tails) made, black actresses still struggle to find quality work. When they do, they are rarely cast as ideals of beauty or objects of desire. On the odd occasion that they are, only a certain look will do. Berry, who is biracial, has long been viewed as Hollywood’s most beautiful black actress, and some would argue that much of her success is based on that belief. Apparently Theron didn’t get the memo that mainstream culture strictly dictates what beauty is—and by those narrow standards, Viola Davis doesn’t fit the bill. Has Davis graced the covers of any of the beauty and fashion magazines that Theron lands with ease, whether she has a project or not? She hasn’t. … Her “hotness” was apparently not enough to warrant a solo [magazine] appearance despite the fact that she may soon snag her second Oscar nomination for The Help. The reasons for this are as varied as they are disturbing, and Theron’s overly simplistic advice only underscores the lack of understanding many have around a reality they either don’t comprehend or don’t fully appreciate.

Some people really think that if you just pull yourself up by the bootstraps, everything will be alright. (most often this is a republican argument, by the way) Why is it that Black and Brown people have less wealth? Because they don't work hard enough, right? Um, noooo...As an example, let's use housing in the Washington, D.C. metro area where I currently live: imagine you live in the same size house but in two different neighborhoods: one in a majority white area and the other in a majority black area. Houses of exactly similar size and features can have different market values simply because one area is considered more desirable, and/or has better educational institutions, and/or more services available to them. Care to figure out which one might be which? See Prince George's and Montgomery counties in suburban Maryland, just outside D.C. Prince Georges County has one of the highest rates of Black millionaires in the country, BUT the houses are priced at a lower level than those in Montgomery County. It's just not as "desirable" to live in that community.

It is the same with Viola Davis. It doesn't matter how "hot" she is, i.e. how desirable her physical attributes might make her to members of the opposite sex. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the "look" and therefore, no matter what she does, how hard she works, or what her skills are, she will not get the same caliber of roles that a Charlize Theron or a Meryl Streep will receive. Now you could say: "What about Whoopie Goldberg? She got lots of roles after the Color Purple. She worked all the time!" Herein lies what I'll call the "Oprah or Cosby Corollary", meaning that everything is just fine and dandy because ONE person of color has succeeded. Whoopie was a comedian and our society is far more comfortable with Black people being funny than with them being serious. More importantly, and hopefully without sounding crass, Whoopie Goldberg was not going for beauty roles that would be offered to other White actresses. And good for Whoopie that she's done as well as she's done! But she's only one!

Now apparently Ms. Davis is starting to get offered more roles; I suspect the controversy combined with the Oscar nod has made her more attractive to studios. Yet listen to the roles offered: She's going to play a military psychologist overseeing children (code for supporting cast) in the sic-fi adaptation of the book "Ender's Game"(which is an astonishingly good novel about children in a military school that wipe out an entire species of bug people and…well..that kind of gives it away…but to continue) and a librarian (code for supporting cast member) "seer". Hmmm…when did we see another clairvoyant "magical negro" seer woman? Hmmm…could that be…Whoopie Goldberg in "Ghost"? So I guess she's really made it. 'Cause when you get the Magical Negro roles…that means, "We done made it! We's movin' to the east side…to a deluxe apartment…in the sky-hy-hy…mo-hoo-vin' oooon up!…" fade to black….

For more information about the "Magical Negro Effect" see my next blog…

Little Johnny needs to know more than just how to read....

2012-02-03T13:23:00.000-08:00

Ok...so apparently we may not be the smartest , but we're still, uh, american exceptionalists.

This video is often sad and funny at the same time. I'm very glad this was made in a majority white school (though many participants are of different ethnic backgrounds) because if the students were primarily black and brown there are many people whom would probably shake their heads and say,"see...you can't teach 'em nothing". But is the premise of the video really fair? Even though the answers to these questions ought to be rote and easily remembered, we are not testing for historical facts in schools. We want students to be able to read, write, and calculate. That's what is tested. Though we teach history in schools, as the article mentions, history is deemphasized in testing. We as a nation need to make important changes in what we are teaching because while it's great to be able to read, write and calculate, if we don't understand what and why we're reading, writing and calculating...well, then it's all for nothing. Furthermore, basic civics, like basic finance, should be included in our curriculum for all students. My 8 year-old daughter is learning how to calculate by using money and financial transactions in her homework. It's scary that this type of basic financial education will most likely stop after elementary school.

BTW, that these adolescents don't know basic civics is not just their fault (because it is their fault. They should know this stuff); it's OUR fault as parents, educators and as a culture. If we deem certain facts important, then we should make sure they are learned; if not in school then at home, in our churches and through our media references. Just like in kids shows, why not just slip in historical references into ads during "Gossip Girl"? It can't be that hard. We are supposed to be an exceptional nation. So write some exceptional stuff which appeals to teenagers yet doesn't beat them over the head with it, make sure we convey to them the important facts we want them to know. The Cosby Show, for example, made all sorts of references to jazz and child rearing. Conveying cultural information was one of the key points of the show, in addition to first class entertainment.

If people don't know these basic facts about our society, how can they participate fully as citizens once they become adults? And how can we continue to cling to our self-anointed role of the exceptional people in the world if we don't even know the countries which border ours? Ah..'tis a puzzlement (see: Siamese King from My Fair Lady)

Simple Rule: If you caint (not can't but caint) sing then DON'T SING!

2012-02-02T09:45:00.000-08:00

The cool factor…sigh…Mitt, you just don't have it

Even though Mitt can't sing, and the majority of americans can't sing well either…this is not endearing. It does not make him one of us…just a slob like one of us. We watch american idol to laugh at the people who can't sing. Nobody roots for the guy who thinks he "moves like Jagger". We think he's nuts and we snicker and holla, and say,"What de hell are you thinking about, thinking you can sing?!" If you can't…just be quiet. If you can, sing. The president can sing. That's really cool. But a singer cannot necessarily run the country, just because he/she has talented pipes. No one expects it. John McCain was hella funny. His saturday night live skits were actually really funny. He lost. I hope Romney gets the point.

Romney knows not that he knows not...

2012-02-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

So Mitt Romney says, "I'm not concerned about the very poor…" Oookkkkay…I'm just sayin, as Piers Morgan on his show this evening said, "There's no need to know the context of this statement or what comes after it. Why would those words come out of his mouth?!"(my paraphrase) The problem is, it's not just foot in mouth disease with Mitt. THIS IS HIS MESSAGE. All he had to say was, "I'm concerned with the middle class…I don't care about the very wealthy. They, meaning I, can take care of themselves." Instead, Romney has just alienated both parties with his statement. Liberals are like: You heartless bastard! You don't even care about the plight about poor people! This is my daughter's position. She said, while watching the evening talk shows with me, eating the chocolate brownies we made, that she doesn't like Mitt Romney and thinks he shouldn't be running for president. "He's not nice. We need to care about the poor people because they don't have any money…because they're poor. I want to help the poor people mommy!" A child after my own heart. Conservatives on the other hand, are not "against" the poor. They feel, as Rick Santorum puts very well, that welfare programs destroy the work ethic of the poor and actually are not beneficial to them in the long run. They think entitlement programs cripple the poor and want to limit the time people spend on the public dole; hence the welfare reform acts of the 1990s.

However, as James Carville puts it, Mitt's statement only feeds a rapidly forming narrative that he has no connection whatsoever with regular people. He makes $10,000 bets, pockets $42 million in 2 years from dividend income alone, he likes to fire people, he can't have illegal immigrants working for him, not because it's wrong, but because he's running for office, and…he "knows what it's like to get a pink slip"….yeah…right..uh huh…you keep on thinking that.

John Dickerson at Slate.com:

Mitt Romney has a single job as the Republican frontrunner: to keep the country focused on Barack Obama's dismal record. Comments like this one distract from that purpose in two ways. They put Romney on the defensive. Of course I care about the poor, he now must say. (There are 46 million of them after all, even if they don’t vote much.) They also make it much harder for him to paint the president as out of touch when he looks out of touch himself. Predictably, Romney has been hit from the left for his insensitivity and cluelessness. From the right, commentators say his answer doesn’t sound very conservative because it seems to accept the permanence of the safety net. Newt Gingrich naturally pounced on Romney’s mistake. Citing the remarks in a rally Wednesday, Gingrich said he was “fed up with politicians dividing Americans.”

Dickerson goes on to make the point that Obama made a similar mistake in '08 with his infamous "cling to guns and religion" statement, which republicans have NEVER let him forget. Since we apparently have two somewhat detached candidates, Dickerson asks who does better at connecting with everyday, average americans? Well, I just re-watched a clip of Obama where he talks about buying his first condo with his wife. Now stop there. That he didn't buy a single family house, but a condo for his first home, is mighty middle class. Upper middle class, perhaps, depending upon where they bought it, but middle class nonetheless. He then goes on to say that looking at the closing contract made their heads spin; and remember, he and Michelle are both lawyers! Now I don't know about you, but buying my first house was rough. I got tooken (ebonics for taken) by a house flipper who sold it to me with all sorts of problems, and did all sorts of slimy stuff (so much that I wrote a song called Don't F**k with Me" to let off a little steam). The contract was literally a one and a half inch thick stack of legal size papers. There's no way I understood everything in it that first go round. So I connected personally with the presidents experience.

When I was in 8th grade there was a class trip to Spain. I didn't go for a variety of reasons. But one of the kids did go. There was a deposit of $1500 that you had to bring in. Well…one of the kids did this: he walked into spanish class, pulled out of his jeans pocket a crumpled piece of paper that took me a while to figure out was a check for $1500, and handed it to Señora Elena Lopez, our teacher. He did this like it was nothing. I was astonished and had no idea how to deal with what I had just witnessed. I was 12. So was he. I'd never seen a check for anything like $1500, and certainly not all balled up and messy like that. That check would be like Willy Wonka's golden ticket or something; angels would start singing as I held it. I couldn't just crumple it up like that. THAT'S MITT ROMNEY. He doesn't even have any IDEA what his words mean! You can think whatever you want, but you don't let the words, "I don't care about the poor" come out of your mouth, you idiot! You, Mitt Romney, have earned the standard catch-phrase of this blog: REALLY?!

As with cooks, too many guest artists can spoil the stew....

2012-02-01T20:53:00.000-08:00

You know, every time someone comes out, I get compared to their hair style. This time it's Esperanza Spaulding. In yesteryear, it was Erykah Badu and her head wraps cause I was wearing head wraps. And then when I had twists it was Rachelle Farelle. There are but only so many ways black women can wear their hair…but I digress before I've even made my point.

Uber musician Esperanza Spaulding is coming out with a new record hot on the heels of her epic Grammy win last year - - which, btw, made me feel oh so good, like wow, music can really still make it at the Grammy's and the artist can still be herself. But looking through the album's credits has brought me a stark reminder of the latest, and in my opinion dubious, marketing trends for Jazz.

Currently, Jazz is trying to become cool again by pairing Jazz artists with R&B and Soul Artists. Not just because it sounds nice, but because frankly, it has the potential to sell more records. Esperanza is ridiculous all by herself. Check her out…she plays bass while she sings. As a singer who can play some piano, let me tell you, that can't be easy. She is a talented artist who happens to be cute and sexy. Potent combination. But…Jazz don't sell by itself. A good selling jazz record maybe sells…15,000 copies. By a well known artist. Remember Casandra Wilson? She once sold 250,000 copies and Blue Note went nuts! Now that album, "Blue Light Till Dawn", was an EPIC, lemme say it again: EPIC record. It was beautiful and interesting, and chocolaty and…mmmm…just great. Here again, it was reinterpreting jazz outside of it's mainstream roots. So just as Jazz albums have done since forever, on the new Esperanza Spaulding record they have a bunch of guest artists that could help broaden it's appeal; people like Lalah Hathaway (who is another artist I'm going to talk about), Algebra Basset, and Q-tip. Though I like all of these guests and agree together with Esperanza great music could be made, why can't I just hear her? I get the brand association calculations that those charged with marketing her must have made in suggesting these pairings, but isn't there also the risk in making the guests so important to the marketing that people won't actually get to know Esperanza better as an artist? That her voice will be a bit lost and/or diluted?

Robert Glasper is doing the same thing. He's got longtime buddy Bilal, Ledesi (that track MUST be good, all he had to do was just let her scream a little, mm mm good!), Mos Def, Chrisette Michelle (dat girl can sang), and…Lalah Hathaway. To his credit, Glasper is exploring all sorts of interesting musical terrain, but my point is: will y'all even buy the record, or even listen to it if there are not some other people on it at the same time?! While I like a good guest spot just as much as anybody, I want to simply hear the artist on his/her own sometimes. Alas the economics of the music business all too often dictates that I can't get my way, at least on this point.

Fox vs .... The Muppets???

2012-01-29T13:43:00.000-08:00

The muppet movie is communist? They vilify rich people? Why are we doing this to the children? Why do we have to indoctrinate the children with this socliast message? I'm at the point where this is not even worth having a discussion. Shaking my head….Really?! You must have really needed something to talk about for about 10 minutes 'cause this is nuts.

The muppet response:

sigh….Only on the internet is this even a discussion.

Earth to Moon Base Gingrich...come in...over

2012-01-28T13:41:00.000-08:00

All of y'all know that I'm a total geek when it comes to space right? I can't do science but I love it! Newt Gingrich is now saying we need a space station on the moon. When I hear him say it, my antennae go up to the "ridiculometer" for ridiculousness. But the geek in me would be like, "Dude…that is sooo cool!" I want to go! It would be great." But when Newt says it, something just can't be right.

The problem is that, right now, economically it doesn't make sense the way he wants to do it. Newt wants business to fund space exploration. That won't work, dog. As Neil Tyson explains it correctly, government funds risk, business exploits the results. That's how it always works. Tyson says that all the exploratory missions of our great Euro-American past were funded by the monarchies and governments: Columbus, Lewis and Clark, Pizzaro…No business man funded this stuff because…Flying off into the unknown is dangerous! You don't know what the hell is going to happen! Didn't Newt ever watch Alien or any other space exploration movie? People get picked off by all manor of stuff you can't foresee. In Star Trek, you NEVER wanted to be the man in the red shirt, cause you ALWAYS got picked off; and generally FIRST, in the most gruesome way possible. And the Federation was the government and Starfleet was the military/explorative arm of the…you guessed it…the government.

All this to say, space exploration is not bad. It can yield great scientific knowledge much of which may have commercial application. I wouldn't be typing on this computer without the moon shot, ultimately. Much of the technology we have today can be directly or indirectly connected to the space program: which is GOVERNMENT FUNDED! Government's role can be to undertake risk on a scale that individuals or industry cannot. Government pools the resources of a society (via the dreaded taxes) and is charged with thinking of the long range public good. That's government's job. I keep saying this over and over because it seems like we've lost sight of what government does and why it's there. It doesn't just provide for the common defense and hasn't for a long time. Commercial exploitation comes AFTER government, 'cause it's awfully hard to run business with thieves and bandits trying to take your cake. That's why the failed states of Sudan and Somalia have no business infrastructure -- their government is nonexistent.

I soooo want to see more space exploration because I am a sci-fi nut. It's so cool I can hardly stand it. But if you want to do it in real life, you have to make a real case for it, in adult terms, not just because you want to go. And you have to understand how we did it in the first place -- NASA -- short for Government funded space exploration.

Note To Mark Oxner: Slave ship references are N-E-V-E-R cool

2012-01-27T15:25:00.000-08:00

Ok, whew...gotta take a breath here...fan myself. OMG..take a breath...breathe in...let it out slowly...thru the nose and out the mouth...whew..

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!?! Who told you this was an appropriate ad for any candidate? ...Woo...take a breath... breathe diva....just breathe...

A SLAVE SHIP?!?!? AND OBAMA'S AT THE HELM? LITTLE WHITE CHILDREN (with one black person on the side, just so they could say it wasn't racist) manning the oars all dirtied up?!?!? ...take a breath girl....just take a breath...OMG! I'm gonna pimp slap someone...just stick my highest heeled shoe up someone's....breathe girl...WHAT?!?!?

Maybe there was a better way to do it...maybe if the kids were working on a field with Obama as the oversear...no...no no...that's not cool...maybe if they were working in a factory and Obama was the manager....naw...

I Think. This. was. not. cool.

D'Angelo's Back!

2012-01-27T13:22:00.000-08:00

Thank GOD! He's back! Yeahhhhh! Wooooooo! Sooo happy! I hope he's able to maintain this one performance into many many more. This musician and artist is one of those great ones that comes along only a few times in a lifetime. He changed the entire music game for a while. He had his own sound, his own style, his own swagger... and he did it without pandering to the public--well he did do that one sexy as HELL video. y'all know the one...where the camera panned down just to the very limit of broadcasting standards...yeah. That was nice. And he can sing, write and play...just all the better...sighing contentedly...

Conservatives: Holy Sh*t! Newt could actually win….

2012-01-26T08:32:00.000-08:00

POLITICO: Drudge, conservative media criticize Newt Gingrich

I've actually witnessed, heard actually, this happening. If you listen to conservative radio at all, they are pooping in their pants about Newt. O.M.G! I find it fascinating because as another conservative talk show host said, "this is going to come back to haunt us. Don't you think that people are going to remember later on that a few months ago, Ann Coulter said that if you nominate Romney, Pres. Obama WINS?! Now she's hating on (my words. republican commentators never use such blatant ebonics) Newt? Do you think the electorate is stupid?!" Umm hmmm…yes, yes they do. The Clinton machine tried to do some of this to Obama and people got real pissed…and he's in the White House now.

The republican establishment is scared out of their MINDS that this guy is actually going to make it through and so he must be stopped, by any means necessary. Have you all noticed the amount of pics on Facebook showing Newt as a big baby?! A BIG FAT UGLY BABY?! Not even an attractive one. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I would say that the GOP "elite" are making sure these things are out there, or at the very least, forwarding them to the "right" people.

Here's what a republican "official" said:

“It could happen, and it would be a disaster,” said the conservative, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect private conversations. “All of us who were around and saw how he operated as speaker — there’s no one who’s not appalled by the prospect of what could happen. He thinks he embodies conservatism and if he wakes up one day and has a grandiose thought, he is going to expect all of us to fall in line behind him.

“There’s just so much risk on so many levels,” the official continued. “Everyone’s thinking, ‘It could really happen.’ He could win the presidency if there’s a way to win with 45 percent — a second recession or a third-party candidate. The immediate worry is him winning the nomination and losing the election, tanking candidates down-ballot. In a worst-case scenario, you could see unified Democratic governance, and we’d be back where we were in ’09 and ’10. It’s insane.”

A super pac is also also saying this:

“Reagan rejected Newt’s ideas. On leadership and character, Gingrich is no Ronald Reagan...”

To a certain extent, this would be actually funny to observe, if the stakes weren't so deadly serious. If the republican establishment is not careful, people are going to vote for Gingrich just to screw with them. As the article states, republicans in Delaware chose an actual disavowed Witch - - the kind with a broom y'all -- to be their nominee for the SENATE, not even the House. What do you think they'll do with a candidate they don't really like (Romney) when Ole Speakah' Gingrich continues to surge? A surge which, by the way, is already starting to wane since the last debate disallowed the outbursts by the crowd that Newt has been feeding upon; another sly Elite Republican tactic to change the race! Oh I could watch this stuff all day….(whistling while skipping)

GUEST BLOGGER: George Colligan on the SOTU

2012-01-26T08:03:00.000-08:00

State Of The Union: Bat S#&t Crazy

I watched part of the State of the Union speech the other night with my son. We sat together on the couch. Two year old Liam was snuggled up next to me. “That’s Obama…”

I taught him. “He’s the President. Can you say Obama?”

“Watch Thomas The Train!” Liam said, unimpressed by Obama’s impassioned declarations. I wondered if the Island of Sodor, so prominently featured on the kid’s show Thomas and Friends, was somehow a territory of the United States.

Despite my son’s protests, I watched most of the address. I hadn’t thought about Obama so much for the past few years. I lived part time in Socialist Canada for two years; during my time in Winnipeg, Manitoba, I was too worried about freezing to death to follow American politics. Now that I’m safely and warmly back in the Capitalist Capital of the World, I’m thinking once again about the good old U.S. of A. As I watched Obama’s speech, which not even the angriest and most ultra-racist of tea partyers could deny was delivered with pitch-perfect eloquence, I realized that no one has been paying any attention to President Barack Obama for months. We’ve been so diverted by the Endless Campaign Of Dangerously Incompetent Manchurian Candidates for the Republican Nomination that Obama has been off the radar. We’ve heard more from Jon Huntsman, who had less chance of being President Of The United States than Paris Hilton has of winning the Oscar for Best Actress, than we have heard from the Actual President Of The United States. (Actually, since you can pretty much buy anything now, I’m sure someday Hilton will be able to use her vast fortune to buy herself the Oscar for Best Actress. Now that I think about it, based on everything we’ve seen, Paris Hilton probably has a better chance of becoming President in 20 years than Jon Huntsman ever will.)

I think Obama is extremely shrewd in that he’s let the Republican Knuckleheads slowly and publically self-destruct before re-introducing himself to America. He let the dust settle, and then made his move. Now, since I’m somewhat smarter than a fifth grader, I actually have a memory beyond one month back. So I remember how, in 2008, America fell in love with Barack Obama, the great Hope for Change. I remember how so many people I knew, especially black people, were so optimistic and emotional after Obama was declared the winner. When I travelled abroad, I was no longer ashamed to be American, like I was from 2000 until Bush thankfully left office. That’s right, George W. Bush used to be President! Remember?

And I remember how much the Bush years sucked. Yes, I remember back that far, too. 9-11? Sucked. Two wars? Sucked? Guantanamo? Sucked. Wall Street Collapse? REALLY sucked. Dick Cheney? (Don’t even get me started on how much THAT guy sucked and, somewhere in Wyoming, still sucks.) My 42 year old brain can even go back to 2000 when Gore was robbed by the Supreme Court. We’ve really been through a lot as a nation since 2000.

What the GOP(The Grand OUT OF THEIR MIND Party) counts on is our lack of memory. They want you to forget that Bush ever existed. It’s always been Obama’s fault. Obama caused the banking crisis. He caused the deficit. He caused 9-11. He caused The Vietnam War, World War II, The Great Depression, and even the Teapot Dome Scandal! All the fault of Obama! He’s been a Socialist Dictator for 100 years! We must stop him!

So it’s always nice to hear someone like Obama who speaks well, but also to hear someone who speaks with maturity(especially in politics!), with class, with dignity, and with optimism in the face of harsh realities. Indeed, there was a line, late in the speech, where President Obama scolded those who would say that the United States is in decline, warning that “they don’t know what they are talking about.” It’s a great line, but it’s different coming from Obama, because he is coming from a very rational standpoint, not a blindly patriotic one. You hear Republicans say similar things all the time, except it’s more like, “I’m not part of the Blame America First crowd!” or, “I will never apologize for the Greatest Nation on God’s Green Earth!” or ….well, you get the idea.

And so, Barack Obama gave a very intelligent speech. Not only was it intelligent, but it was very patriotic and optimistic, which could actually be considered more Reagan-esque than even conservative Democrats would like to admit. But he affirmed his belief in the greatness of our country, while offering solutions and taking to task those who would put unbending ideology ahead of making progress. ( I personally believe that most politicians, more so on the right, have no ideology beyond “do the bidding of whomever is paying me.” Our Congress, indeed, most of the three branches of government, are bought and paid for. End of story.) So the theme, is, that yes, the problems we face are great in size, but with intelligence, bi-partisanship, and common sense, we can do much, much better.

Now let’s take a trip to Crazytown, U.S.A., where the G.O.P. Headquarters have been since 1992. Here, Obama is “pro-poverty” and making a “constant effort to divide us” (according to the rebuttal offered by Mitch Daniels, who ruled out running for the White House last year, mostly because he looks like an alien extra from Close Encounters of The Third Kind, and probably no one would believe that he was born on American soil). In Crazytown, U.S.A. Obama wants everyone to be on “food stamps”. (That’s from Newt Gingrich, who was recently touted by Dr. Keith Ablow on Fox News as being a great candidate for President because, “when three women want to sign on for life with a man who is now running for president, I worry more about whether we’ll be clamoring for a third Gingrich term, not whether we’ll want to let him go after one.” By that logic, Republicans should have made ladies man Bill Clinton KING OF NORTH AMERICA FOR LIFE!) In Crazytown U.S.A, Obama is “detached from reality” and “speaking from fantasyland.”(You guessed it, the Mormon Millionaire Mitt Romney on that one. That’s from a guy who not only lives in the world of fantasy called BEING A MULTIMILLIONAIRE but also who, if he is truly Mormon, believes a lot of weird things, like Jesus visited America, dinosaur bones come from other planets, and drinking caffeine is a sin. I mean, we have freedom of Religion, so Romney can believe what ever he wants. I personally believe in hard Bop trumpeter Clifford Brown as my prophet and savior, but that’s another story.)

And so, Obama has officially begun his campaign for re-election. I think he deserves another term. If Reagan got another term, if G.W. got another term, Obama deserves one. At least, using rational thoughts, analysis, and my memory of history(meaning the last few decades), I have come to this conclusion. But for many Americans, some of whom live in Crazytown and watch Fox News all day long, and even some people living right here in liberal, granola, hippie town Portland, Obama is worse than Hitler. My question is, are these people stupid, crazy, or do they just have poor memory? Do they not remember all the crappy things Bush did to get us into this predicament? Those things are why we are in trouble! So we want to go back to that?

Let’s say you are in a store. You see a gum ball machine. You put money in that gum ball machine. Your quarter goes in. No gum comes out. Clearly, the gum ball machine is broken. Don’t put any more money in the machine! Leave the store and buy gum somewhere else. Right? Does that not make sense?

In Crazytown U.S.A., people have been lined up at this gum ball machine for YEARS.

Mitt you had help, just own it man!

2012-01-25T10:23:00.000-08:00

"What does piss me off is Mitt's perpetual assertion that people are somehow envious of his success. This line of reasoning comes up in every debate, as well as Mitt's assertion that he is a self-made millionaire who didn't inherit anything. The inference seems to be that practically anyone can pull this off, if they just happen to be smart and resourceful enough. This is obvious bullsh*t.

Romney's Dad was the one-time Governor of Michigan and CEO of American Motors Corporation. It's fair to say that Mitt's upbringing wasn't that of a typical American, and it's equally fair to say that his father's wealth and influence opened doors that many other Americans aren't privy to."

this pretty much says what I've been thinking for a while. When you come from a background of privilege, there are doors open for you that are not open to those who grew up having to use food stamps or whose father worked as a construction worker. Nobody's begrudging this man his wealth. What they are getting mad at is that he wants to act like he is one of us, just a slob like one us. HE'S NOT. He had help. Completely understandable help, given the successes of his father. But he shouldn't think that people aren't aware that he had doors open for him that others can't find, or even tunnel under, to get to where he is. There is a larger conversation to be had about class structure and mobility that we need to have. Mitt's envy assertion is similar to a person with a six figure income saying to a homeless woman and her children,"Why don't you just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and find a job?! Your children are hungry…don't you have any self-respect?!"

Ann Coulter's Logic

2012-01-24T13:15:00.000-08:00

Today I was listening to the Michael Medve Show. I tend to listen to him on the republican side because I think that he's reasonable and has opinions that, though they may be different than mine, I feel like he respects diverse opinions. At least that's what I tell myself. Today he had the really annoying Ann Coulter on. She loves Mitt Romney and does not like Newt Gingrich. During an interchange she talked about the shut down of the Government in the mid '90s and how Gingrich lost the argument with the American people because of his incendiary comments. Clinton is generally acknowledged to have won that battle, so far as the public is concerned.

Now, that wasn't the part that I'm responding to. What Coulter said was: Clinton and Democrats always crow about how they balanced the budget when "they didn't really balance the budget. It was Reagan!" (paraphrased) "Don't you people understand that it was the peacetime dividend?! They were able to cut defense spending because Reagan won the cold war!"

Ok, so Clinton didn't really do anything, it was Reagan, and we should give Reagan the credit. Ok. So Reagan left power in 1988. Clinton started to balance the budget in around 1995 or so. So that's around 8 years. Keep this number in mind.

Now, republicans have been saying that the present economy's issues are the fault of Obama. Can't talk about Bush anymore. He's been out of power for 3 years! Bush didn't actually cause the recession, and Obama's policy's have made a bad situation worse. It's all Obama's fault.

Here's my question and my issue: From what point does the previous president get the credit and/or have to take responsibility for what is going on now? According to Ann Coulter, at least eight years. So, according to Ann Coulter, we're still in that pre-president responsibility phase and Obama's off the hook for the current economy. Thanks Ann, for clearing that up! :)

SOTU Anxieties...

2012-01-24T09:52:00.000-08:00

I find myself nervous for the first time in my life about politics. Why? Because things feels more personal. Frankly, I'm of an age now that I really understand, very deeply, how the political system affects my life, my parents' lives and the lives of my children. Who represents you in government makes a very big difference locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. The policies enacted will be in place for a while and affect me personally with regards to my children's education, my health care and insurance, my mortgage, my tax rates, my retirement, my job and entrepreneurial prospects. I have followed this election cycle really closely because, not only is it funny as hell, and better than any soap opera written, but there are real issues that are going to be changed as a result of who is in office at the highest level.

But, most importantly, and I don't kid myself: I'm really concerned about the brother Obama. To put it mildly, black people are concerned that he doesn't f*ck up because it makes us all look bad. We as black people root for all people that look like us, sometimes whether we believe in them or not, because for a very long time, and still somewhat today, if ANY BLACK PERSON MAKES A MISTAKE, WE ALL LOOK BAD! How many times have you been at work and when some black person robs or steals something and it's in the news, you just cringe when others bring it up. How many times have you been the only black person in the room and when you're having a discussion about OJ or Henry Louis Gates, or Rev Al Sharpton, or just Jamal or Ebony on the corner, you are the one who gets asked for the "black" response? We, individually, have always been representatives of an entire race. And personally, I'm nervous because if Obama looses…it makes us look bad. When will another african-american (or minority) get another opportunity at the Presidency if Obama is seen as a failure??

Now, in this era of "Post Blackness", as the commentator Toure likes to call it, we're not supposed to have to feel this way, but I'm sorry…I'm nervous. I like Obama. I like his family. I also lean towards his policies, and I hope I'm not overly beholden to him and his platform. But the presidential election is very personal to me, I unexpectedly find. As the president gets ready for his last state of the Union Speech of his first term in office, I am frankly nervous like I'm getting ready to go on stage and sing. How will he do? What will he say? How will he defend himself against the "liar!" calls and what can he say since this year, legislatively speaking, there was not a lot done? I am very connected to this outcome in a way that I have never been before, and one of the major reasons is because a black man is up there on the podium. I remember the feeling when I was in NYC and Marion Barry got busted for cocaine, went to jail, and later was re-elected to the Mayoral position. Almost daily, people said to me,"What's up with your mayor dude? Why is/was he smokin' crack? and why is he mayor today?" I felt I had to speak up for not only the man, but black people and my home city of Washington, DC.

This is strange because I didn't expect to feel this way. I thought that we were over this kind of racial identification to a certain extent. I am astonished and fascinated by my own responses.

Well, the man better have a decent speech and actually follow through on what he proposes, cause if not I just don't wanna hear about it afterwards...

To Red Tail or Not to Red Tail, that is the question...

2012-01-22T10:37:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of push back concerning the "hysteria" of Black people who feel we HAVE to see the George Lucas film because he spent $58 million of his own money and hollywood won't make Black films again, ever, if we don't go see this. Now, I believe that we should support this movie because it focuses on our history and african-american contributions are not often lauded in the public sphere. HOWEVER, as these two articles put it, they ain't buying it. Bomani Jones puts it this way:

What, you think the reason Hollywood doesn’t make big budget movies about black people is because…black people won’t watch them? You really think, if every black person in America goes and sees “Red Tails,” there’s going to be a long line of big-budget black movies hitting theaters near you? What, black people are the reason the studios don’t think these films will make international bank? They drawing that many folks to the box office in Africa?
Noooooo, the reason movies like these can’t get made is, clearly, studios don’t think white people will go see serious depiction of the African-American experience (or, put in a way less likely to offend, “can’t market it”). I’d gander that’s also the same reason that television shows with predominantly black casts are dinosauric on television now. Hell, I’ve never heard a person who truly watched the wire say something less than laudatory, but it couldn’t get a ratings foothold in any of its five years with its brilliant, predominantly black cast.

Many are mad, if you check the comments section after these article, because black woman aren't depicted. Another salient point is that George Lucas brought us the lovely and talented computer animated character who only needs a razor to make the coon-like picture complete: Jar Jar Binks. So what does he know about creating solid black characters that are not stereotypes.

Charing Ball at Madame Noir has this to say:

Long gone are the days that we should have to feel a need to prove anything to Hollywood. If anything, it is the reverse. And if Hollywood is as racist as we all know it is why should we feel the need to let the decision of what images gets green-lighted continue to be placed in the hands of those, who don’t see us as human beings? I mean, the last time Hollywood took interest in the black market we got a bunch of one-dimensional Blaxiploitation and gangster flicks in both the 70s and in the 90s.
Instead let’s throw our support – and dollars – behind filmmakers, who continue to make conscious efforts to not only make films despite not having the blessings of mainstream Hollywood but make good films period.

So if we don't goto this movie, there will be others because frankly, the iPhone exists and you can make a damn good movie on that thing; and I don't even need a degree from the NYU film school...

Transparent Aluminum?!!

2012-01-21T08:33:00.000-08:00

Ok…the next geek out moment for me is that this is actually coming true. Y'all remember Scotty saying, "Computer?"(add scottish accent) then trying again with no response and then scoffs,"Keyboard?!" and then types out something really quickly…and then the fat nerdy guy says,"Transparent Aluminum?!" and then Scotty says,"How much would that be worth to ya now, laddy?" I think I have seen that movie oh…100 times. It was the movie I went to on my first date with my husband.

Transparent aluminum is actually HAPPENING!? Mind Blowing. Next thing you know we'll start sling shooting around the sun to find out when Battlestar Galactica settled on the earth, thereby populating the planet with Cylons…

The Velvet Glove...

2012-01-20T20:21:00.000-08:00

I will take you out! I will listen to you, but if you take advantage of me I will…wait for it…CRUSH YOU! He should be a jazz musician.

The President sings...on pitch!!

2012-01-20T10:02:00.000-08:00

Cool factor, at least for me.

The president actually sang Al Green's Let's Stay Together. Most importantly, with a pleasant tone and IN PITCH. The cool factor just went way up…way up. Imagine him singing you to sleep each night, baby! You know you dream about it! Don't play me…that sh*t is cool!

Newt, Newt, Newt...

2012-01-20T09:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, Newt may not want to deal with this but…man you are just something else! Do you just attract sick women only to leave them for the next one? Is it that when they get sick they ain't attractive no more? MS sex ain't that satisfying? No cancer kisses on your lips? Ok…ok…ok, that's just bad. But really? I hope this current wife doesn't come down with Lou Gehrigs disease or a bad case of acne, cause it sounds like if that happened…well, there are more healthy fish in the sea.

As I've said an earlier blog, there's a special place in hell for those who leave their women in the midst of illness. John Edwards is dealing with that one. More importantly, you can't just say you're for marriage. You actually have to BE FOR MARRIAGE! If you want to be with another woman, get a divorce, but not when they're sick or dying? That's just not cool, man. And you know how I like a cool president.

Oil is expensive...Good or bad thing??

2012-01-19T09:09:00.000-08:00

Fareed Zakaria detailed some startling energy facts in his recent blog:

"I saw some striking numbers this week: Look at the "break-even" costs for the world's top oil producers. That is the minimum price at which these countries need to sell oil so that they can balance their budgets.

Russia now needs oil at $110 a barrel to manage its finances. For Iraq, the number is $100. Even Saudi Arabia now needs oil to trade around $80 a barrel just to balance its budgets. The numbers are also high for Algeria, Qatar, and Oman. Only a decade ago Saudi Arabia was able to balance its budget with oil prices averaging around $25 a barrel."

Let's think about this. Putting aside for a moment the very real dangers posed by the geo-political instabilities that are helping keep oil and gas prices inflated - - no easy feat, I recognize - - let's focus on the social behavioral modifications that high energy costs can lead to. For I'm an advocate of what I'll call the "Tom Friedman school of thought on energy independence", which says more or less that high fossil fuel costs are actually good for America. Even though this will be painful in the short term. Put bluntly, the ONLY way we're going to move to other types of fuels and energy sources is if it's too dang expensive to get a tank of gas! The costs related to alternative energy sources such as solar panels, electricity produced without coal, and non-corn ethanol need to be at least on par with oil in order for me to even think about switching.

Sh$t, I don't even take the subway to all my respective jobs, even though the train station is, literally, one block away from my door, because the DC Metro train fare COST TOO MUCH! It's cheaper for me to burn my own personal fossil fuels while I listen to my Mary Mary CD, then switch to the Diane Rehm show, and catch snippets of the Dennis Prager Show, while I do business on my phone, while handing the baby a snack, and, "be quiet back there! (K. singing loudly in the background, while J. takes off her shoes and throws them and her socks to the ground screaming loudly for more of her cereal bar…)"

Hmmm…maybe I should re-think this train thing...

MLK Jr. Day continued...

2012-01-18T08:52:00.000-08:00

Ok, so why were all those white people at my predominately black church on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday? [see my previous blog for the first part of this story] Because the pastor, Rev. Hagler, had invited participants from the occupy DC and wall street movements to the church. He proposed that the occupy wall street movement were the new prophets of this day and age. That Martin would have been a part of the movement. Rev. Hagler said people like to white wash MLK's legacy and choose not to see the radicalness of his message.

I largely agree with this viewpoint, but not for the same reason. I think Americans are really mad right now. I do think the tea party and the occupy movement are simply rural and urban, southern and northern, coastal and inland, inversions of one another; I strongly suspect Martin Luther King, Jr. would have applauded, "bravo!" I tend to believe he would have sided more with the occupy movement because of the nature of the politics surrounding the situation. However, it should be duly noted that both of these movements are standing up for what they believe, using the tactics of non-violent resistance to advocate for change via the political system. Perhaps even more importantly, and some will be mad at me for saying this and maybe bring up the Koch brothers, but…both movements are all about the "little guy" not being beaten up by corporate interests and having their voices squashed simply because they don't have the same amount of money to buy influence as someone richer.

But back to the MLK day service: some of the occupy protestors got up and spoke before the congregation. The words of one of them really struck me. I'm paraphrasing, but the gist of what he said, "I get spit on a lot and told to get a job. But I don't hate them…they just don't understand…they're also a part of the 99%, like me." Now it just so happens that even though he was dressed in work type boots and some flannel-type shirt (NOT de-riguer for a black church), he's also got long blond hair and that don-johnson-kinda-stubble. He could easily be the model on the cover of some crunchy granola romance novel or some such. It always helps when the spokesmen look pretty good. But this is frankly the essence of the non-violent movement that Martin Luther King, Jr. pioneered in America. Based off of Christ's teaching that, because sometimes others know not what they do, you need not hate the other. Nelson Mandela utilized the same approach when he was imprisoned. It makes us larger as human beings when we choose to look at things this way.

I ended up being asked to sing the next day on WPFW (89.3FM) the song I sang at church, Duke Ellington's powerful and beautiful ballad, Come Sunday. I had a chance to meet with some of the protestors and all were very focused on what they felt needed to be done. They understood that they needed to reach out to people so the movement would grow and have solid understandings of their goals and interests; that and they were just nice people who had varied backgrounds and where not "serial" protestors as the right sometimes like to call them.

All in all, one of my most interesting days in awhile. Plus I had to conduct the choir with a 26 lb toddler on my hip. That was a unique experience to say the least….

Why don't african-americans support Jazz??

2012-01-18T08:21:00.000-08:00

I'm included on a discussion about Jazz and the issues surrounding audience participation at Opensky.com with the great Jazz presenter, educator, and all around Jazz-head Wiliard Jenkins. He asked me about a question that's really hard: Where are the african-american concert goers in the jazz audience? And I told him what I thought. Thanks to him for listening and for soliciting my opinion. I hope I sound like an edumacated person.

2012-01-17T13:53:00.000-08:00

Pres. Obama wants to put free enterprise on trial. And in the last few days, we’ve seen some desperate Republicans join forces with him.This is such a mistake for our party and – and for our nation. The country already has a leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy. We have to offer an alternative vision. I stand ready to lead us down a different path where we’re lifted up by our desire to succeed – not dragged down by a resentment of success. - Mitt Romney in South Carolina

Ok, I don't have a problem with Romney saying what he needs to say politically, but the "politics of envy" and "resentment of success"? So now we are envious of rich people?! That's endearing. There's nothing that says I feel your pain like telling me I'm jealous of you. I just don't think he gets it. You want us to LIKE YOU, you dummy. Nothin' says lovin' like envy and resentment in the oven.

This brings up a larger point that needs to be addressed: Questioning ideas and systems and their efficacy doesn't necessarily make you anti-anything. Questioning the particulars of how we practice capitalism in this country and the effect it is having upon society at large doesn't mean that all of a sudden I am a socialist or that I want someone not to succeed because I'm envious of his/her wealth! And by the way, can we stop turning things that we disagree with into bad words? The president's been called a muslim, like that's a BAD thing; like being a muslim is akin to being a satanist or something. Now it's SOCIALISM (said in my most boogie man trying to scare little children voice). It's like if you have anything to say about free market capitalism or income inequality, or the laws and regulations that have made legal the raping and pillaging of the economy i.e. 2007, then you must be a card carrying socialist that takes a Karl Marx lunch box to school every day filled with Stalin and Lenin action figures. That we can't even have a public discussion about whether or not Bain capital and venture capitalists in general have been healthy for our society without deciding that one side is against the free world and are just hippies/welfare queens wanting to live off of the government teat is disheartening, to say the least. Just plain stupid if you want to be harsh.

Venture capitalism is not intrinsically a bad thing....mostly. The 'mostly' is, as with most any other business pursuit, all about what a particular VC does, how it goes about conducting business. Investing money in a business to make a profit is the essence of how free market capitalism functions. For example, it's how the skin care line Carol's Daughter made it big. While living in Brooklyn, not 1 mile away from my house, this woman made and sold skin care products out of her house that appealed to black woman. When I came across these products, I IMMEDIATELY wanted to invest. Now I had maybe…uh…$100 that I could put toward my investment. But because I was in an investment club that invested $25 per person, per month, into the stock market, I was excited! I knew all about black women cause I was one, I had skin and I had hair. The stuff smelled GOOD. "This woman should make a mint," I thought. I bought it for my family as Christmas gifts…how could this not be a successful company?? Well, Jada Pinkett-Smith must have stole the idea from my mind because she invested in it, it came to the attention of Macy's and Oprah and now Carol's a multi millionaire.

What Bain capitol does is take struggling companies, "fix" them up by trimming them down, i.e. firing people, working on their management structure, and hopefully bring them back to profitability. Without this valuable service we wouldn't have Staples, where I get all my printer cartridges. However, Bain Capitol is about making money for INVESTORS, such as pension funds. It is NOT conceived of as a job creator, though jobs may be created in the long run if a company continues to do well. Now I do not pretend to know everything about venture capitalism, but to have questions about how it works and whether it might be completely good for our society is not a bad thing, it's called being an active citizen! Should government policy be made based on what is good for private investors or workers or owners? What about those people who are not in any of those categories? What should we do about them? Must I be a boogie man because I dare ask such questions of our political leaders? In a free society don't I have a right to question whether bankers, investment groups, and other financial service operators may be doing things that may not support what I think is a healthy market and a fair society?

Ahh well, I guess I'll dust off my trusty communist manifesto, put a hammer and cycle on my forehead, all the while I sell my CDs and collect my recording royalty checks and as I contact iTunes to see how many people are paying to download my latest single….Oh what a communist I am...

Caint (Not Can't but Caint) Roll with it...

2012-01-17T09:08:00.000-08:00

Nope nope, nope nope and nope…I caint roll with that. Beyonce is a lovely singer and truly an artist of her time. She works super hard and I have much respect for her. But I can't roll with comparing her to Ella. And it's just not necessary to compare these two utterly distinct artists. Clint Eastwood, a life-long jazz fan and patron, should know better.

But honestly, does it matter to the real world? I'd say not...

Today's the day we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's birth

2012-01-16T13:38:00.000-08:00

I am, for a time, conducting the choir in the church I grew up in, Plymouth Congregational Church in NE Washington, DC. Before I go any further, I have to say how strange and surreal it is to be conducting people who were the adults when I was in the youth choir. I'm accustomed to looking up to these people. So when I became conductor I felt totally afeared - - that's afraid for those who may not speak southern or understand my made up words - - that these people would take one look at me an' wanna just pinch my cheeks and not pay attention to anything I said. But they have been lovely.

So yesterday at MLK Jr. sunday church service, I'm conducting the choir in an early morning practice. I put on my choir robes. Make sure the children are set with their grandmother. The choir and I go up the steps to the choir loft and then we sit down. I get myself together for the opening hymn, and I not only do I do a double take, but a triple take. Who in the hel--I'm mean heck-- are all these white people in the congregation?! Now the church has a few white members, but there were SEVERAL PEWS worth of them in the narthex (that's the place where you worship for all you non-church going people out there, of which I should admit I myself have been one at several points in my life) and some of them were even up in the balcony! What is this?! This is a Black church! We wear large, brightly colored hats and suits and wing tip shoes to church, not jeans or a dress that you would wear to school on a slightly dressy day; no khakis or boat shoes here. What were these people doing in this church??

Then I thought for a moment. Mine had been exactly the same reaction that white people in the past, and I'm sure sometimes in the present, had when they saw blacks or any other group of people that were different from them in the church (or basically any other place) where they congregated. I thought again, "Wait…this is Martin Luther King, Jr Day. Shouldn't we be celebrating with all people?" And the preacher said,"Martin Luther King, Jr didn't fight for a black utopia or heaven. He fought and died for all people to be treated fairly in society…." Yeah…that's exactly right: Though it was important for black people to have advocated for the rights we are constitutionally supposed to enjoy, it was not important just because we are black; it was in spite of it. ALL peoples should be able to pursue their lives in the manner they choose, in America. We should be coming together on all days, but most especially on this day. Because it's a day that's really about all of us...

But, having said all that, why exactly were all them white people in the church? Ahhh you gotta wait for the follow up blog :)

As I said...

2012-01-16T08:52:00.000-08:00

...Jon Huntsman apparently understood the gig was up...

R-E-S-P-E-C-T Part 4

2012-01-14T16:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, really!!!?? sigh…shaking head from side to side. He's the president y'all. Let's think about this.

I was playing with photo morphing sites and the first one I goto they have all these celebrity photo's that had been morphed. Tom Cruise with David Beckham, Selena Gomez with Justim Beiber, etc. All good. But then…I'm not kidding: Barak Obama and Chewbacca. Chewbacca!!! Really!? Heavy Sigh… I don't make these things up y'all. I ain't playin'. If it had been anything or almost anyone else, with all the pretty white people, I'da been cool, but…Chewbacca?!

Sigh….head shaking from side to side…

In the words of Bill Cosby: C'mon People!

Anti-Obesity Ad Sparks Controversy

2012-01-14T09:50:00.000-08:00

Anti-obesity ads spark controversy in Georgia

Off the political circuit for a moment, this is an ad that is running in georgia to help fight obesity in children.

Now, the really telling thing about this ad isn't the sad child in it. It's the breathing at the end. You gotta listen for it. Being the child of a doctor does come in handy occasionally. Hear the child's breathing? When you are overweight you breath harder because there's just more to have to carry. Many overweight adults have sleep apnea and they have to wear an apparatus on their faces at night so they don't suffocate and die. This beautiful girl, because of her weight, may have to deal with this in the future. Or, it could have been a really hot mic that catches everything.

Well, regardless, there weren't that many overweight people in the past, because there wasn't as much food readily available in the past. More food available, the more you eat; it ain't so hard to figure. Politically speaking, we need to better deal with the stark reality that as a country we are fat…(as I eat the last piece of Caribbean fruitcake and a cold piece of pizza for breakfast)

Jon Huntsman it's time to collect your parting gifts...

2012-01-12T21:06:00.000-08:00

Jon Huntsman has been a consistant conservative. Um hmm..."I've had larger than expected crowds at events..."Meaning what, like ten...20 people?? Ok, why do I care. He's not going to be the nominee. He's not even a good candidate at this point. Maybe he needs to run, like Romney, for an additional 4-5 years and then he'll be able to talk the talk. [Announcers Voice] Jon Huntsman! You, and your buddy Rick Perry, have won the "I'm Running For President!" board game as a consolation prize. So now you can go sell a book and start your promo tour...

Sullivan: Yes, Romney Could Lose...

2012-01-12T14:08:00.000-08:00

Andrew Sullivan echoes my cool factor argument as to why Romney probably will not win in November 2012. Speaking personally, I am not in any way against capitalism! People start businesses, people make money, people hire other people, people buy things, and people make more money; and so on, and so on...just like that 70's shampoo commercial. Its all good!

The problem with Mitt is that he keeps displaying a lack of connection to what people actually feel like when they lose a job by -- saying he knows what it's like to get a pink-slip! Bruh c'mon! You don't know what it's like. Being fired when you have no money is tough. It changes your whole life, unless you get another job pretty quick. You could lose your house, you definitely lose your health care, you may have to move to another city or move in with other family...it can be d-e-v-a-s-t-a-t-i-n-g.

If you, Mitt Romney, are fired, you may feel bad, like you failed, and to make yourself feel better, you'll go on a trip to, say Bora Bora, or the south of France; maybe even Hawaii. You may hole yourself up in your house and get depressed. You may have to go into therapy to deal with your issues, or go on a shopping binge to...wait, that'd be a woman...scratch that. You just don't have regular-people-type of money problems. Just admit that. You don't feel our pain, and you never can or will. Deal with it, and just be rich and happy, and own that, "though I didn't grow up with money issues, I want what is best for all Americans and you can see that by my work with (insert appropriate charity(s) here)." Say stuff like that more often and people might start to believe you're sincere.

That's why the "documentary" about Bain Capitol is so damaging. It doesn't matter that eventually there were jobs created, to the person who lost his/her job in the 'creative destruction' it just doesn't matter 'cause their job is GONE. Since Romney apparently doesn't understand this in his gut, he has a quite a bit of difficulty conveying to people that he understands this lack of distinction. The most recent primaries have shown that clearly conservatives aren't all that exited about anyone and are just voting for the one who could possibly defeat Obama. The main problem is...sigh...I'm sorry but...nobody really likes you all that much, Mitt. People may disagree with Obama's policy's but...most people LIKE HIM personally. They like his family, and his wife, and...just him. He seems like a nice guy. He didn't destroy Hillary Clinton in their presidential primary contest like Romney destroyed Gingrich with Super PAC dollars. None of Romney's competitors like him; they HATE him, despise him on a deeply personal level. So if the other presidential candidates hate you, how do you think their base voters feel? They may support you in the end, but just because there's no other choice, not because you make them feel good inside. You got a few months to turn yourself into someone likable, cause if you don't...Just make sure you get large speaking fees cause...oh wait...you don't need to worry about money... never mind...carryon, sir, carryon.

A Movie A Republican SHOULD Love...But WILL they??

2012-01-11T21:41:00.000-08:00

Republicans should LOVE this movie. Especially southern republicans. It's all patriotic. It's about WW II. They're fighter pilots shooting down the nasty Germans who are trying to take over the world. The fighter pilots are heroic. They do hero-type things. It's a real story about real people. Wave your flags y'all. Raise them high, because America is a great country, producing great military heroes. This movie should be a blockbuster. You should be able to take your kids to the movie; at least your young boys. They should love it!

Let's see what happens when they see that it's about Black people. Black Americans. Heroic Black Americans. Heroic Black American WAR HEROES. Wait, wait, I forgot. All black people are poor and on welfare.

Oh Nevermind.

Ho Hum New Hampshire

2012-01-11T01:18:00.000-08:00

So I just finished watching the coverage for the New Hampshire Primary. Mitt won again, but, as I said earlier, Mitt just ain't cool, so, even though it's looking like he may have just about wrapped this race up only two states into it, I still don't think he's gonna win. With his talk of his love of firing people (even though it was completely taken out of context, since he was talking about firing a health care plan that didn't work for you) and that he's feared receiving a pink-slip or two, no one really likes him all that much. And the pink-slip comment. REALLY!? You ain't never been fired, man! And even if you had been, you wouldn't have had to change your lifestyle. All that might have been hurt was your ego; man you're RICH! I've been fired before (although I must say that after my one and only firing I bought myself a lobster dinner because I felt that this was the great universal spirit telling me it was time to concentrate on my music, which has worked out pretty good for me ) and it's not a good feeling at all. It hurts both emotionally or financially. Being laid off because of budgetary reasons ain't fun neither. "You did a good job, but we have no more money for your area of expertise." But I digress…

I was really fascinated by the different coverage styles of the three main networks: CNN, MSNBC, and FOX. I watched all three for a while, till I fell a asleep on the couch (while eating a mediocre, but oh so satisfying, chocolate cream pie slice that was on sale for $1). MSNBC and FOX used their semi-news pundits to have a round table like discussion of events. Earlier in the night, FOX did a lot more "hard news" coverage of the event, utilizing reporters more than pundits. However, the award for dumbest story for the night was CNN's, "Let's follow the actual ballots in a car right behind the car that's taking the ballots to their final resting place…" Ummm…WHO DE' HELL CARES?!?! Normally, the dumb CNN thing has to do with some cool, but stupid technology like holograms or computer generated bobble heads, and smart boards that move in ways that no one really cares about. If you're gonna go low tech, do it with something people care about. Following votes behind a car?! Is Princess Diana back from the dead and there's gonna be a shoot out or something while you're following the votes? Are you following them in a suspicious white bronco in LA?! Maybe Obama's real kenyan birth certificate is in there or something and Geraldo is going to jump out saying that Al Copone's treasure is somewhere within the ballots cast in New Hampshire. Why do we care about this?! You got all this technology to tell us what the results are, what gives with the filler story? What de hell?!

BOA building goes under

2012-01-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

Now ain't this some Sh%t! The Bank of America building in Atlanta , GA is going into foreclosure. Smiling sigh…though the bank is not really involved, it makes me feel good to know that somebody's having the same issues as I have with my house. One of y'all needs to go down, even f it's only symbolically.

Fair and Balanced

2012-01-08T20:57:00.000-08:00

Just to balance things out a bit…from twitter:

BorowitzReport Andy Borowitz

It says something about Mitt Romney that even compared to Rick Santorum he still seems like a dick.

santorum (san-TOR-um) n.

2012-01-08T20:45:00.001-08:00

I didn't write this. I didn't make this up. Readers of Dan Savage coined the term years ago. But Jon Stewart made note of an interesting coincidence the other night: apparently, brown seems to be Santorum's "color" on CNN, the color used whenever they air graphics referring to Santorum. I promise, I did not make this up. And Mitt Romney did not approve this communication... (spoken very fast in a low radio voice)

Santorum: Leather...its what's for dinner

2012-01-08T15:39:00.000-08:00

Ok, I don't really want to help to Mitt Romney bash Rick Santorum's campaign but…this stuff is so daggum easy. I just want to let y'all know, I did not search for this. It came up on Facebook in a couple seconds of looking through the "news feed" of my wall.

But…ahem…(I'm taking a second to make sure I put this the right way)…ARE Blacks the only poor people in the United states?! Are black people the only people to benefit from entitlement spending?! I seem to remember that we are only 12% of the population. Don't Whites and Hispanics and Asians and Native Americans also receive welfare and food stamp benefits? Just sayin'....

Rick Santorum must like the taste of shoe leather...

2012-01-08T13:30:00.000-08:00

My good friend L. Michael Gipson tipped me off on this. Here is Rick Santorum talking about how great the president is for having a date night with his wife. He's a roll model to blacks that don't really engage in marriage as a good thing. And it's so great that he values his wife as a romantic partner. Okaaaayyyy (said slowly in that manner women use when they're trying not to appear angry) Then he goes on to add that going to a broadway show seems a little extravagant. You can go to the local bar and have a beer, he says, but the important thing is spending time with your wife.

I don't know about you, but if my husband took me to the corner bar for a shot, a beer, or whatever, he would get no lovin' from me! Who in de' hell wouldn't want to be wished off to a grand city to see a Broadway show in a limo or something like that. Isn't that what Richard Gere did in "Pretty Woman"?!?! Didn't every woman want to be Julia Roberts in that moment, putting on a diamond necklace and red flowing evening gown?! Is Rick Santorum nuts?! I do hope his wife loves him, cause he's going to need to arrange a nice dinner in his best looking sweater vest to at least the Olive Garden or somethin' to pay for that remark. Maybe Maggiano's is more upscale…Caraba's is another chain like substitute….

Preach On! "Why An "A" Is Not Enough

2012-01-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

Here is as well articulated an argument as any for why we Americans need to ensure that arts education is not only kept in schools, but fostered and strengthened. This conductor of European classical music in a high school explains that just doing "A" worthy work is not enough. But more importantly, music made in groups allows us to express the skills that we need to use in our daily lives: working with people to make things work well, shoring up our neighbor, creating beauty with community, and following a leader effectively. Music allows our spirits to sing in all the ways that we as human beings were evolved to express. As my mother always said, "joy shared is joy multiplied."

Reason why Mitt Romney probably won't win the presidency

2012-01-06T18:01:00.000-08:00

As I said earlier, there is a cool factor. But more importantly, there is the wuss/authentic factor as well. Most all the previous losers in modern day presidential elections to incumbents were frankly....wusses. And not only is Mitt a wuss, he's a plastic wuss. Frankly, so was John Kerry. So was Walter Mondale. Bob Dole was a wuss too. He kept referring to himself in the third person with that pen in his hand. That was just weird (although in all fairness this was due to an injury suffered fighting for his country)

Mitt has been running for president for SEVEN YEARS! He has yet to break 25% in any poll for that entire time. Why? 'Cause as John Stewart puts it: he looks like he bought the "how to look like a presidential candidate kit" for $14 million. He looks like a ken doll. There is not a hair out of place. His wife is very pretty. His kids are very clean. It's all too dang perfect, and perfect just feels wrong. When we heard Pres. Bush had had a drinking problem in the past some of us sighed and shook our heads, but inside, we knew that at least he was human. Humans get drunk and make mistakes.

Also, if you gonna look perfect, you gotta look cool doing it. My favorite James Bond is Sean Connery, because not only was he fine as hell, he really looked like he he could fight...he was dirty sometimes. But most importantly, he looked cool as hell. Mitt don't look cool. He looks like the guy in the movie that's the villain in the geek-as-hero movie. He's that fraternity brother that just dumps on the good guy just because he's not perfect, like him.

We like people that look like one of us, just a slob like all of us(see Joan Osborne's song, "What if God was one of us"). And just because he's rich, doesn't mean he can't be cool. Kennedy's family was rich as a golden ball. All three of the famous Kennedy brothers were cool, the ladies man, and the dorky one, the drunkard (apologies to my brothers namesake!). They had everything and sailed on yachts and played rich people sports...it was like watching P. Diddy at a white party, but they were there first. You wanted to be them. Nobody wants to BE Mitt Romney. Ain't no woman dreaming about mitt Romney. Nobody's writing songs about Mitt Romney. And then he starts reciting the God Bless America and goes to verse 3, the words of which nobody even knows....not cool, bruh...you just ain't cool...

The Cool Factor: Why I believe Obama will be re-elected

2012-01-05T17:33:00.000-08:00

You know, thinking about the election, I've come to believe Obama will win, not primarily based on the strength of his record and how people might judge it. It'll be because he's so daggum cool. When you see him in a pair of shades, he looks like a secret agent or something. He's tall, he's good looking - - but he's married, lovingly, to his wife, and it's obvious that he's into some Michelle, loves his kids. He's a romance novel hero-type guy; at least in a picture.

Most of the modern presidents have had a similar cool factor in some way or another. I'd say a certain segment of america likes it's top politician to be cool; a guy you can have a beer with but who is still a larger than life persona. Bush was the Harvard marlborough man who partied hard and just barely squeaked by. Everyone knows that guy. They all like him.

Bill Clinton was the hillbilly intellectual. He liked fries with his shake, and a lady serving them to him was a good thing. He played sax and would be fun at parties and always had an interesting story to tell.

Ronald Reagan was slightly forgetful, cuddly and soft, but the grandpa you always loved and respected. As an actor he'd been sort of a poor-mans-John Wayne. He made you feel protected and comforted and laughed at all your jokes.

Few, if any, of these personality attributes really have all that much to do with their ability to govern or their knowledge of the issues. They're just cool man... Each had his own cool factor that made you want to be around them. And when it boils down to it, people don't always vote because of a candidates' command of the issues. Folks vote their gut, and we always want the girl who looks the best in a swimsuit to win Ms. America, we don't care much at all about her platform.

Ron Paul and....MLK??

2012-01-04T20:52:00.000-08:00

Ron Paul May Have Secretly Won The Iowa Caucuse

Interesting, with eyebrow raised. Ron Paul is a slick mofo. He seems to be working to become a powerhouse in the Republican party, whether they want him to be or not. This article in the Businessinsider.com tells the story of how Ron Paul not only made sure his people arrived early to caucus, but stayed late in order to become delegates for Iowa. They ain't playin'. They are trying to affect the platform of the party on the sly...

However, Jonathan Bersnstein over at a plain blog about politics is convinced that it doesn't matter because he won't be able to gather enough to make a difference and frankly no one will care and they'll just end up doing whatever they want anyway.

Just my two cents: I think Ron Paul is like the proverbial MLK, Jr. turtle in the race. He may not get to see you on the mountain top of no-government, ass hanging out in the wind because we don't need a nanny state getting in the way of our liberty of doing whatever the hell we want regardless of what or how it affects anybody else and it doesn't matter anyway because we abolished every department that makes sure your food, education, air, and water are ok…as I say he may not get there with you, but he can see the promised land….

Santorum wins...or does he??

2012-01-04T08:24:00.000-08:00

So, Rick Santorum did well in Iowa. This whole situation reminds me of the beauty and nightmare that are Girl Scout cookies. EVERYBODY waits for those dang cookies to come out every year because they are soooo dang good. Thin Mints anyone? My daughter joined the Girl Scouts this year, and I'm so happy that these cookies are here. BUT. With all the other activities she's been doing and the social networking she needs to do (which really means: I have to do), it's gonna be a tough slog to get to whatever prizes have been lined up for the person who sells the most cookies in the troop.

We gotta identify: (1) who to sell to, (2) how many we think we can get them to buy, (3) who we can guilt into buying, (grandma don't even eat cookies, but she'll buy a box) and best of all - (4) who's gonna just come to us saying,"I heard you got Girl scout cookies for sale. I want 8 boxes!"

This is exactly the difficulty Rick Santorum now has. Girl Scout Cookie time is here! He won the opportunity to keep on selling. He just hoped, beyond hope, that he could gain the opportunity, but didn't really expect it. Now that he does, will he be able to ante up the infrastructure, money, and time needed to capitalize?

Now, to digress a little bit, there is this mom at my daughter's dance class who is selling stuff constantly: bags, cookies, cards, you name it. It's all to fundraise for her child's private school. This woman has it together. She has her group of people she goes to each time for her products. Always making sure she doesn't sell to the same people over and over again. That whole sheet of orders is filled to the brim; three or four times A YEAR! She has her ducks in a row, networks in place, infrastructure down. Her daughter's gonna get whatever prize is in place for whomever sells the largest amount. It's a shoe-in. I'm just trying to sell a few boxes of cookies, so I can have my thin mints, man.

And that leads me to my point: since Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are like that over-achieving mother, Romney more so than Gingrinch, how in the heck is Santorum gonna stand up to the pressure when right now he only has one cookie selling sheet, and Romney gotta staff of people selling cookies in every daggum state on his behalf. What's Santorum gonna do?? Well, all I know is if any of y'all want some cookies, just comment on my blog with pertinent contact info (I'm serious). Cause it's time to ingest some sugar…mmmm…chocolate crispy goodness.

The Economist: R's have jumped the shark

2012-01-01T22:50:00.000-08:00

The Economist website yesterday had a fascinating article about the republican presidential race. Now, no one would call The Economist a left-leaning publication. Though they call themselves independent, they are more like a global version of the Wall Street Journal to my thinking. This publication is calling the republicans…well…they're calling them dumb a***s, for lack of a better term. They're using the word Fatwa, FATWA people, to describe REPUBLICANS' actions because they see the party is utterly inflexible. Here are the Fatwa's they are describing the republicans having proclaimed:

"…that abortion should be illegal in all cases; that gay marriage must be banned even in states that want it; that the 12m illegal immigrants, even those who have lived in America for decades, must all be sent home; that the 46m people who lack health insurance have only themselves to blame; that global warming is a conspiracy; that any form of gun control is unconstitutional; that any form of tax increase must be vetoed, even if the increase is only the cancelling of an expensive and market-distorting perk; that Israel can do no wrong and the “so-called Palestinians”, to use Mr Gingrich’s term, can do no right; that the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Education and others whose names you do not have to remember should be abolished. "

The whole article is essentially saying what many people have been thinking: Y'all is crazy! The crap you're doing doesn't make sense! Here's a bit more (after the, uh, jump):

"…On the economy, where this newspaper has often found the most common ground with the Republicans, the impact has been especially unfortunate. America’s commercial classes are fed up with a president they associate with big government, red tape and class warfare. A Republican could stake out a way to cut the deficit, reform taxes and refashion government. But instead of businesslike pragmatism, there is zealotry. The candidates have made a fetish out of never raising taxes (even when it involves getting rid of loopholes), while mostly ignoring tough decisions about cutting spending on defense or pensions. Such compassionless conservatism (slashing taxes for the rich and expenditure on the poor) comes with little thought as to which bits of government spending are useful. Investing in infrastructure, redesigning public education and maintaining unemployment benefits in the worst downturn since the Depression are hardly acts of communism."

To translate for those who may not get the picture: they're telling the reader that we like Republican platform; we like the way y'all do business, but you all have gone off your rocker! What de hell are y'all doin'?! We'd support you! You should win! There is no reason you shouldn't win, if you would run someone that: wasn't crazy with her eyes all bugged out (and she did it WAYYYYY before the Newsweek cover story. Just watch old Larry King) saying that people "get retarded" after vaccinations, or had shoe in mouth disease and should be given a set of steak knives or the board game version of running for president as a consolation prize, or I shut down the gov't in 1994, but I'm not a washington insider, or just abolish all forms of gov't that actually helps people because you're on your own, it's the American way…And the person who could win should grow a backbone because, the economist's words - he is "several vertebrate short of a backbone". DAAAMMMMMNNNN! This is why Obama actually has a really good chance of winning, because though Romney will most likely get the nomination, he's had to run so far to the right, he's likely to be held hostage by these stances in the general election. The right has gone WAAAAYYYYY right, like right off the rocker right. At least somebody (over on that side) has said it. As I've always maintained: there are different valid philosophies about the proper role of the US government. I may not always agree with people who are on the other side of issues I care deeply about, but I'm always cool with there being other ways to think…what I'm not cool with is when one side has gone nuts.

Nighttime reading continued: Deep Economy

2011-12-30T22:17:00.000-08:00

I had forgotten how much of an environmentalist this guy is. It figures he lives in Vermont, where all slow foods, farmer's market, east coast environmentalists live. But he brings up very good points about how our modern economy is built off of abundant access to fossil fuels and that eventually these will run out, so the increasing growth of ours and the world's economies are not sustainable. More importantly, he says that the increase in the amount of stuff that we have don't necessarily make us happier. Well….I don't know about not having a new car and that being a good thing….I know a shiny new van with heated seats and dvd players in the headrests for the kids and wi-fi accessibility would make me real happy about now…gas powered or not.

No Vacation Zone: Hawaii???!

2011-12-30T16:10:00.000-08:00

“Take nothing for granted,” Christie said. “Elections are decided by the people who show up, by the people who vote, by the people who care about their country enough to be out here on Friday Morning in Iowa, in the rain, in the cold, because you love your country and because you believe this man can help lead this country back to greatness.”
“We are out in the cold and wind because we care about America,” Romney said before slipping in a jab at the president, telling the crowd that Obama has just “finished his 90th round of golf” on his Hawaiian vacation.

Ok, so the president can't take a vacation in his HOME STATE, where his family is located? Is Hawaii not a state?! I thought it was an all-american pastime to hang on the beach whenever you can? Just because you all are cold, doesn't mean he's lazy because he's home for the holiday season. My family goes to Myrtle Beach for Christmas because my mom's family farmed there. I guess we're all just slackers…

America Votes For The Braxtons

2011-12-30T13:54:00.000-08:00

I love Fareed Zakaria. And he brings up that we are not the only ones in the world that are having elections that will change the outcome of how the world will inter rest with each other. I think that this fact is why I get so frustrated with a certain sector of the american public: they have never been anywhere, and frankly don't care. They don't see, or have a very skewed perspective on, other countries interests. We have been an economic power for so long, and frankly are such a big country, many don't take the time to keep up with the political happenings of the broader world. Our political process is fascinating during an election year but after that, for too many folks it's back to mindless entertainment like my personal favorite show that has candy-like nutritional value, The Braxtons. Will Toni do the next Braxton record? Will Towanda get a great part in a soap and divorce her husband? Will the Tamar get hit in the mouth after she says another mean, but truthful, statement about what one of her sisters are doing? This is what america really wants to know.

We live in a multi-cultural society. Deal with it!

2011-12-29T12:49:00.000-08:00

The fact that in 2012 this still has to be written about really bothers me. Why is it that we have to still search for characters for our children to see and relate to that have melanin in them? These books are beautiful, but it brings up the point of why is it that so many people STILL have to look high and low for the same type of image? My cousin's wife, who is white, is always looking for books that show off her world view. One of the most beautiful books she has is a book about mothers and children in primarily third world countries. It's gorgeous and wonderful to look at. She lived for many years in Africa and is actually one of the few white people that actually does have many friends of different ethnicities, not just the required one melanin-infused friend. The blogger who posted this is Vietnamese and like she says, looking for things that represent her daughter, while trying to explain to the wider public that her bi-racial children are actually hers, and she's not the nanny…for real!

I think we need to get off of the default setting for "girl" or boy" being pink skinned. I think that people need to take responsibility for creating things from their own cultural perspective that can be enjoyed by all. I think that I have a lot of other, more important things to do than to search hours and days, literally, for something for my kids to watch and read that balances out what the media presents to them so they feel like they are beautiful too.

"Family values" are found in individuals, not political parties

2011-12-29T11:50:00.000-08:00

Was thinking about the upcoming republican iowa caucuses and thinking about marriage and relationships and why the republican party makes me a little mad. Not because of their beliefs or philosophies but because they wear their philosophies like they themselves invented values. In this article at Blackandmarriedwithkids.com these two people were married for 69 YEARS! Newt Gingrich, and other republicans want people to vote for them based off of family values of fidelity. "I have made mistakes," Gingrich says (paraphrased) "And I'm on the right path now." Sure you are.

If you want me to use fidelity as a character trait upon which to vote for you, If I was republican, someone else other than Newt Gingrich would have to get the pleasure of my vote. But, really, if I was a republican voting on fidelity as a character trait, I'd have to vote for the current president because I've seen this marriage up close; at least as close as the public eye can get.

Having said all that….

As I was discussing with my family over Christmas, there is a special place in hell for those who cheat on their wives when they are sick and possibly/probably dying. You may not be able to fight feelings that happen, but if you are an adult, you sure can control your actions. Marriage is hard. Really hard. Divorce is not a dirty word, but when you cheat, at least do it when your wife ain't dying of cancer. That's cold and a no-no found on page one of the respect-for-your wife handbook.

Sleep Reading...

2011-12-28T23:39:00.000-08:00

Getting ready to re-read "Deep Economy" by Bill McKibben. I remember the end starts getting a little pedantic and slow…kind of like what he's advocating. But I think it's something that makes me feel a little better after reading "The Big Short". Gotta fall asleep to something…why not this.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means, PT 3....

2011-12-28T14:19:00.000-08:00

Ok, this is getting ridiculous. Now, to be real, the congressman was saying this privately, but…WHAT DE HELL?!?!?! So just because the First Lady has a large behind (not a negative in many communities that have melanin) they have to keep saying this Bullsh$t about Michelle Obama?! I'm not going to comment about Rush Limbaugh. There's nothing more to say…

You know, I hate to point this out, but Laura Bush wasn't the most shapely woman in the world, but she looked aight in an evening gown. Nobody said nothin'! Now, when the first lady wants to promote healthy eating and activity among America's youth you got a problem with her A$$?! If she was a 1000lb woman promoting healthy eating and exercise, we would cheer and say, she's working on it and we'll all get there together. See Mike Huckabee. The comments people have made about her (see my earlier blog about respect of the first lady) are downright vicious. It's insane!

So I say, to those who have a problem: go have a cookie, matter a fact, have several, sit on the couch and eat chips, never have a vegetable, or even walk a dog occasionally; shoot, don't even walk, just drive everywhere…The rest of us are going to live well doing the best we can and enjoy our nice behinds….and you know what you can do with them….show them some love.

It's just Hair Y'all

2011-12-28T13:54:00.000-08:00

'Natural' hair is making waves among black women

This is what I'm talking about. It's just hair y'all. We don't become "militant, anti-white/establishment/revolutionaries" just because we choose to wear our hair the way God made it. And if you choose to straighten it or color it, that's fine too. Weaves, relaxers, and wigs do not equal house negro either. It's just hair y'all.

Wrote a song about it. Wanna hear it, here it go:

Wanna own it for your very own? Go here or here

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means, PT 2....

2011-12-26T22:40:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting at the breakfast table in South Carolina. Sitting on the table just happens to be a catalog called "The Lightterside" full of gag gifts. Kind of like Miles Kimball; inexpensive gifts and household things you see in any house of a grandparent-type person. We're having the standard breakfast of grits, eggs, smoked sausage and bacon (standard southern morning meat-fest).

On the front is this picture:

Obama Plush Toy Which Farts

Now, OK, I understand satire about political figures is out there. I understand that people make fun of the president. That's all well and good. But REALLY?! The president farts?! Then talks about the healthcare bill?! Usually satire is based off some semblance of the public image of the president: partier (Bush 2), over-confident-womanizer (clinton), un-connected to the masses (Bush 1) forgetful-father-figure (Reagan). The list goes on, but Obama --- farting?! Remember the Hillary Clinton nut-cracker? Though disrespectful, at least it was based off of public perception of her being a really tough woman.

This is really over the top. The countdown calendar to Obama getting out of office is not that bad nor even the Obummer t-shirt. But the vitriol of a certain sect of theAmerican public towards the first family is really over the top. Obama was a law professor, specializing in the constitution. At the bottom of the description it says,"All in good fun of course--we respect the office of the president." Uh huh..yea…sure you do...

It Don't Mean A Thing...

2011-12-25T18:29:00.000-08:00

So George Bush 2 endorses Mitt Romney for President. As I eat my ribs made by cousin Edward and my mother's famous chestnut stuffing with brandy in it, collard greens, butter beans and peas…I think….Why do I care? Does it really matter that the president that said he never made a mistake or changed his mind is endorsing one of the most changeable politicians out there since John Kerry…chomp…chomp…chomp…mmmm…smiling contented sigh: nope.

Holiday Basics

2011-12-23T14:24:00.000-08:00

In this holiday season I have to say again the words you seem to hear from me so often:

WHAT DE HELL?!?!?

I'm working with kids and so I decide to do "name that tune" with Christmas songs. I don't have a Christmas book with me so I just wing it. Here's the tune list:

Here Come's Santa Clause

Jingle Bells

Christmas Time is Here

Joy to the World

Winter Wonderland

The Christmas Song (chestnuts roasting on a open fire...)

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Silent Night

Deck The Halls

Oh, Christmas Tree

I'll be Home for Christmas

- and -

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Now I'll be home for Christmas, maybe I'll take that you don't know that, but Oh Christmas Tree?! Let it Snow?! The Christmas Song (this, the most popular Christmas song of all time was actually written by a Jew, Mel Torme)?!

These are not kindergardeners, they're in 4th and 5th grades! The fact that our children do not know some basic cultural material is upsetting. In that spirit, I'm starting a sing along in my car cause at least MY kids will know some of this stuff. Maybe it'll spread. It's due time we value our cultural heritage, no matter where it came from.

R's can't get their stories straight...

2011-12-23T09:34:00.000-08:00

Now all Obama has to say is, "See?!?! They [republicans] can't even work with their own party! The house republicans can't work with the senate republicans. How do you expect me to work with them?!"

Pundits or children...You decide

2011-12-18T17:13:00.000-08:00

video platform video management video solutions video player

Saw this while I was making pancakes in the morning for my kids. Actually, it sounded just like my kids:

"I worry about the mad proliferation of cameras through our lives. I don't want to make safety….trump personal liberty!" - George Will
"Here is where the right wing republicans want big government. They are the ones who want to regulate personal choices…George I assume you want to join with me an Ron Paul in removing the criminal penalties on the use of Marijuana. - Barney Frank

=

"I'm making pancakes." - Mommy
"I want bacon." - Kissiah
"We're not having bacon, but I have turkey sausage." - Mommy
"I don't want turkey sausage, I want bacon." - Kissiah
"Too much fat, but I may have some turkey bacon." - Mommy
"I don't like turkey bacon, I like pig bacon!" - Kissiah

"Rather than trying to bring the people on the top down to the bottom, we should focus on bringing people from the bottom to the top..." - Paul Ryan

=

"Can't you put some chocolate chips in those pancakes?!" - Kissiah

"This is an example or where [republicans and democrats] are actually not on polar opposites… I happen to believe that we should cap the size of banks…but when you look underneath there is a lot we have in common." (Loud noises of disbelief from rest of panelists) - Robert Reich

=

"Can't I watch TV WHILE I eat my breakfast? I have been able to eat it without getting distracted before and then you get to watch your show and rest mommy…" - Kissiah

"Shouldn't it be an axiom, if you're too big to fail, it should be too big to exist?" - George Will
"How small should we make the banks George?! How does that work?!" - Barney Frank

=

"Juice?!" - Jenaya
No you can't have no more juice! You've already had enough!" - Mommy
(Loud, grating, crying noises) - Jenaya

When a Recession has actually become a Depression

2011-12-16T14:44:00.000-08:00

You know, my daughters love the story of Cinderella. Though this is a European fantasy, it has a distinctly American character. Beautiful, under appreciated girl works hard for those who are undeserving; they beat her down mercilessly but they get their comeuppance by Cinderella landing the prince and becoming happy and rich. Most importantly, throughout any of the many, many incarnations of Cinderella (and I know there are hundreds because my 1st daughter has youtubed and watched EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM) she is uncomplaining, sweet, and gracious throughout all her trials; not even so much as yelling at her persecutors.

We americans believe if we just: (1) keep our heads down, (2) don't complain, (3) work hard, (4) do all the right things, (5) save and invest money wisely in the stock market, (6) goto a good college and study something that will bring in lots 'o money - such as becoming a doctor, a lawyer, an architect, etc - (7) buy an affordable house...do all that and you will attain the american dream! Voila! The prince will carry you off from your burdensome difficulties and you will live in a castle in american suburbia, white picket fence and errythang'. Jus' like I pictured it (a la Stevie Wonder). But what we are finding is that student loan debt is stifling abilities of young people to start their lives (we're talking $50 - $250K to get through those masters and medical schools, and sometimes no job at the end). Dream(s) Delayed. John Corizine and his investment company just lost $1.6 BILLION of investor money, just lost it….don't know where it 'tis…Dream(s) Denied. You bought the house, but now it's worth about half what you paid for it and you can't get out because no one will buy it and hey…you just lost your job or haven't been able to find one for oh about 1.5 YEARS. Dream(s) Defunct.

Paul Krugman just wrote an editorial in the NY Times that says let's just call a spade a spade:

It’s time to start calling the current situation what it is: a depression. True, it’s not a full replay of the Great Depression, but that’s cold comfort. Unemployment in both America and Europe remains disastrously high. Leaders and institutions are increasingly discredited. And democratic values are under siege.

We ain't in no recession, we're really in a f****n depression. damn. Europe, you gave us the cinderella story, and now all of us westerners have lost the narrative...

Cue my song "Depression" from my just completed new album called.....wait for it..."Mommy, What's A Depression?" The words to the song go "...this life is hard, I'm just trying to get by, it's easier to fly…." I'm trying to give voice to the many, many people out there who can relate to this line....

This is kinda angry, but I was just pissed off....

2011-12-14T23:52:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have delicate ears and don't wanna read me cursing, step away now, cause I'ma 'bout to let 'er rip. I was listening to the radio today and I heard an ad for the Lars Larson show, apparently a conservative themed radio program, and he said essentially those who got a mortgage that they couldn't afford and got caught up in the mortgage mess are STUPID. Ok, M**A F***A, say that sh*t to my face!! I got caught! I am a university professor. I have a Bachelors and a Masters degree. More broadly, just because you got caught doesn't mean that you were stupid. A little of my story:

I saved for YEARS to buy my first house. My mom said to me when I got married, "you can get married in a really nice hall for a lot of money, or you can have your reception in 19th Street Baptist Church for $500....I will give you the difference to put towards your first house." My reception had no dancing because we ate our dinner and had the creme de la creme of Philly Jazz Musicians in the reception hall of a Baptist (read: no dancing allowed) Church. And even then I still had to save for YEARS after that to buy my first house. Once I had the down payment, because I was a musician, and thereby self employed, I was offered no option but a high mortgage rate. I was told by my mortgage broker, who by the way was the nephew of my mother's college classmate, that if I paid my mortgage on time for 12 months, I could refinance for a reasonable rate of 7%. Unfortunately for me, I decided to take out a home equity loan to upgrade the property at the same time because, in order to own that particular house, I had to become a landlord. The house was old and needed fixing up. So I got a very low rate, and paid regularly, but a couple of years in, my payment changed DRAMATICALLY. I called the company and said,"What de hell!!??!!" And they said,"you signed an ARM, an adjustable rate mortgage", I replied, "No, I DIDN'T. I wouldn't do that because that would be a financially stupid decision for me" Them: "We have your signature if you'd like to see it" I had been caught in a trap! My mortgage broker - - remember: he was the nephew of a close friend of my mother's, someone you might think had my best interests at heart - - had screwed me over. I shook my head sadly…I thought somehow I must have missed something.

Later on, when I bought my house in MD, I talked to the title agent. That person may have been blowing smoke up my ass, but she said, "No, Alison…you didn't miss anything. I've talked to you for a while, and they just didn't tell you what you were signing. I've seen it happen many times."

How many houses do people buy in their lifetime?! FOR REAL?! One?! TWO?! In NYC, the mortgage contract is 1.5 INCHES thick full of legal size papers in REALLY small print. It is EXTREMELY PLAUSIBLE that a vast number of people didn't completely understand everything in such a complicated document. Also, when someone dangles your dreams in front of you, no matter how thoughtful you are, if it's something where you don't have a lot of experience, you may make a mistake. That doesn't in any shape, form or fashion equate with stupidity. And FYI Mr. Larson, and any one else who talks about normal, rational people who may have made a mistake: Bankers, mortgage brokers, real estate agents and title agents all made a whole lot of money every time someone got a mortgage, home equity loan, or any other real estate based financial product. It was in their financial interest to get as many people to buy or sell their homes as they could. Everyone, soup to nuts, was making a sh*tload of money. So goody for you, Mr. Larson, whoever the hell you are, that you didn't get caught in the housing CRISIS. From the rest of us stupid, fallible, people we'd like to say, "Kiss my a**!! And make sure you don't miss a spot and be sure to feel and smell the breeze while you're down there...."

No Euros, Dolla Dolla bills (US Dollas, that is), please...

2011-12-12T20:38:00.000-08:00

You know, I used to want all my paychecks to be given to me in Euros when I went on the road in Europe. Well, I guess that's over.

NPR: GOP pbjects to 'Millionaires Surtax': Millionaires we found? Not so much

2011-12-10T19:43:00.000-08:00

NPR did this story recently about the Millionaire surtax to pay for other programs and decided to find some millionaires who were against it. They found very few who were willing to talk about it at all, but the two they found were not stopping their hiring based off of whether they were taxed or not.

Now I have a friend who owns her own financial consulting business. She IS the american dream. Came from NOTHING and built a thriving insurance and financial consulting firm, taught herself spanish and lives in a big house, literally, on a hill down a long driveway. When I talked to her, she said, we gotta bring down some of these taxes, they're killing me! However, she did not say that her hiring practices changed because of her tax burden. My Grandfather who owned a farm said that if you're paying more taxes, you're making more money. Rejoice!

No one wants to pay taxes dude. I may get a tax break for childcare, but whether I had the tax break or not, I gotta pay for my child to get watched because I gotta go to work. If a business has work coming in and not enough people to handle it, that company will hire more workers or find a way to get more productivity out of the current workers they have. Taxes may be a part of any decision, but the work needs to get done regardless. Period.

Choosing between Health or House in America...

2011-12-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

You know, Facebook is good for something because I found this op-ed in the LA TImes today that helped me really realize something that I needed to: that I am not alone. Health care for me has been a big issue. For many years, I paid for my own health care for me and my family. First in NYC where I had to pay really high premiums but EVERYTHING was covered. Then in MD where I had the fraudulent health insurance that decided it only took $4000 to have a baby and that's all it covered: doctor visits, all tests, hospital stays and giving birth. Oh, and btw, when the baby came out, she was now an individual who was uninsured, so they wouldn't pay for her. Many thousand of dollars (and I mean many, many, many thousands of dollars) later, I found a different insurance which is better, but the high deductible makes it so that I'm doing my best not to get really sick.

This article really reminds, "There but for the grace of God go I." This woman had to choose between health insurance and her house because the economy ruined her and her husbands self employed business. She chose her home. Comments underneath said things like, "well, she should've found a cheaper place to live." and " Tragic but "we the people" should not pay for her misfortune."

Again, WHO IS ASKING FOR A FRICKIN HANDOUT HERE?!?!?! All the woman wanted was to be covered by insurance and found out that because of the Affordable Health Care Act (I refuse to call it obamacare), she now has access to health care coverage that she can afford to pay HERSELF! It ain't like its free or welfare. I am soooooo tired of the people who say that just because someone wants something that's affordable and easy to deal with that they are a communist or believes in socialism and your problems ain't my problems so just deal with it. I hope that those people never have a daggum problem with their health like cancer as this woman did and have to choose between their health and a roof over their head. It makes me just wanna kick 'em in the nuts with a pointy toed shoe….

We Don't Need Kid Janitors...

2011-12-04T09:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, Newt Gingrich is now saying that "urban" (read: black and brown), children don't know the value of work because most of them are living in areas where most people don't have a job or when they do work, it is illegal. So, he is advocating that this kids should work in their schools including, but not limited to, being a janitor in the school; thereby you fire the Janitor and save money right?

Ok, there's merit to his argument but not in the way he thinks it is.

1. All children should participate in the running of their school at every level, including the BASIC cleaning of it. Children in urban, rural, and suburban background should know how to take care of the environments that are important to their development such as their homes, schools, places of worship and community centers - - not just "urban" kids. I know plenty of "suburban" kids who can't take care of themselves let alone anyone else.

2. As Charles Blow says in his op-ed, most people in inner cities work, but not necessarily the jobs that get them anywhere. When you don't see that the jobs your parents do gives them enjoyment or lead them anywhere, why would you respect those jobs? As I've suggested in an earlier post, there is a two-tiered society of the haves (those with computers, technology, etc) and the have nots. The haves - - regardless of their economic background - - will move on to possibly become successful because they can see many different avenues towards success. (One of my student's mother has a 'wall of success' in her house of all the awards her 4th grade daughter has won over the years. She showed me a picture of it, and proudly calls her daughter a nerd. It's very obvious this woman is probably on public assistance.) If you grow up believing being a sports star, a model, a reality TV star or a rapper are your only paths to financial success, then essentially you feel you don't have a good chance in life. Gingrich needs to refine his message to include the understanding of WHY children are having difficulty internalizing success models.

3. There is a dearth of PARENTING SKILLS within the black community. YEA I SAID IT! A LOT OF US DON'T KNOW HOW TO PARENT! I see it all the time. This is the clearest explanation for a lot of the problems we see with children.

If you let your child goto sleep at 1am - you have a parenting problem.

If your child doesn't know how to speak to adults in anything other than slang - you have a parenting problem.

If your child cannot read, calculate, and write more than 3 sentences in a straight line by the age 8 - you have a parenting problem.

If your child has learning deficiencies and you haven't found a way to work with him and your child is running wild in the streets - you have a parenting problem.

If your child's hair is unkept and it nappy and has lint in it and their teeth have gold caps on them - you have a parenting problem.

These are not problems of poverty, these are problems of PARENTING. Black people have been poor for centuries in this country and have still raised children well, and many times to greatness. I am no fan of Gingrich but there is something to be said for a certain amount of work being done in schools to help create a sense of pride in children, for both themselves and their communities. That he can say some dumb-ass-stupid things such as the child labor laws need to be revamped is just Gingrich being just that, a dumb ass.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means...

2011-11-28T16:48:00.000-08:00

I just want to say a few words about the booing of the First Lady and Dr. Biden. I suspect that there is a lot more behind it than just booing someone. The NASCAR fans didn't just boo anyone, it was the FIRST LADY. Now, no matter what you think of the person, the "office" of 1st lady is something to be respected. Period.

I fully acknowledge and respect that people can have their own opinions. But someone on the Right should have said, "I don't like them much, but we as a nation should respect the 'office' of First Lady. Booing was not appropriate. Perhaps at a political event, but they were standing with veterans and their families who they have supported for many years. Their kids were there and it was not our finest hour." I searched the internet for HOURS and found NO ONE! Not one political commentator, not one pundit, not anyone in the public eye from the right said anything. Below are the types of comments that were on Glenn Beck's website: Blaze.com.

I think this really points out that a group of people in this country have decided that in their rightful and righteous anger towards the government that they can just do anything. On the Fox.com site , there was a poll. The results were that they thought the booing was: (in this order) offensive - 133, inspiring - 333, and funny - 673. In my best Spock voice: "Astonishing!"

Another article talked about how other first ladies, Roosevelt, Johnson, and Clinton were also booed.

In this picture, are there any republican first ladies? …crickets chirping…The democratic first ladies were all advocating for what certain people thought was above and beyond their "place". The comments after the jump really show what people are angry at and how vitriolic it has gotten personally against this woman. I'm not saying there are not really foul mouthed democrats, but saying that Michelle Obama is, "the 1st linebacker…I mean lady?" If Laura Bush had come to a black church to say something, people might have clapped politely, and might have even frowned a lot, but NO ONE would have booed. If it had happened, we'd have been put under the jail, so to speak.

Comments from the Blaze.com:

I like Salt… Burgers & Fries… Freedom… and keeping my own Money. I would Boo, too!

IMSTEPH

Posted on November 20, 2011 at 10:21pm

the queen and her hand maiden are no different than cows toads when they use children as human shields….they are using the veterans who have served our nation and her people as human shields.

SATOSTUD

Posted on November 21, 2011 at 4:50pm

Mrs Obama got exactly what she deserves. She hates America and everyone knows it.

UNIX

Posted on November 21, 2011 at 10:33am

mo-cene is in rare form today – hey, you might want to get that cement out of your thighs girl, it could be dangerous to your health. As to BHO and company – they will be sent packing come 2012, what you gonna do then thunderthighs? LOL

TEAMARCHESON

Posted on November 21, 2011 at 10:27am

Moonshall is uglier every time I see her. Why don’t she just stay in her garden. NASCAR is a White Sport that the Democrats attempted to outlaw because of air pollution. Moonshall hates the White NASCAR more than America hates her.

SCAREBEAR83

Posted on November 21, 2011 at 2:19am

I think I gotta disagree with most on this one. Even though I don‘t like her husband’s policies there‘s a time and place for everything and I’m pretty sure this wasn’t such an occasion to boo at the first lady.

LUCY LARUE

Posted on November 20, 2011 at 7:42pm

DECKLE,

I second the AMEN to your post.
They sure as HELL should have been booed!
THANK YOU NASCAR!

And PUHLEEZE…,Doctor Biden?! Give me a break. She is a DOCTOR of EDUCATION!
Uh….,that’s no Doctor.
When I was in college, forced to take brainless , mindless, “EDUCATION” courses for my teaching degree, my History Professor told me that the offices of the “EDUCATION” Professors were in the basement of every University across the nation!!

TRAILBLAZER66

Posted on November 20, 2011 at 5:50pm

Me 2!! I only wish she had been run out of there and not just a little boo-ing. In the early history of our country traitors were hanged. She is just lucky.

Kids become what they see...

2011-11-20T10:49:00.000-08:00

Though this is an interesting article about how children are influencing makers of technology like iPads and such, it makes me think a lot more about the multi-tiered society that we are creating: those with technology and those without. I know this subject has been brought up a lot but as a person who works regularly with children who have little, and with young adults who have much, I see how it affects our society deeply. We have and are continuing to build an underclass in our society that barely has access to the things and even ideas necessary to be upwardly mobile.

Think about this: if your parents don't have books in the house, certain studies say that you as a child will probably not read as well or as much as a child who has many books in the house, EVEN IF THEY NEVER READ THEM IN FRONT OF THE CHILD. What is put in front of you lets you know what is possible. My children are very familiar with computers and phones and books because we have them. My mom bought a really crappy computer when we were teenagers because even though she had no experience with them whatsoever, she KNEW that we would need them at the moment and later on. BTW, (my brother is probably the only one who I can share this with and will remember) the phrase 3927(or some such number) to washington, 3927 to washington, was a phrase used by my father frequently in his car because….wait for it…he had a mobile phone IN HIS CAR…In 1976! My brother and I had a vision of what the world could be because our parents had the opportunity to show it. My husband and I have made it a point to show our children what the world can look like, to the best of our ability. It's time for us as a culture individually and politically to decide that we will work to make things available educationally and make parents understand that parenting actually does start at home. We can come together for a wide variety of issues, but class rears it head everywhere, even in our so-called "progressive" movements.

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OFFS (Occupy Frozen Food Section)!!

2011-11-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

Ok, I don't have much to say but…this is just dumb. Pizza ain't a vegetable. A granola bar in the shape of a cookie is…a cookie dang it! French fries are literally, killing people because if you ingest them you are more likely to ingest all those other foods that are bad for you and cause diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and contribute greatly to arthritis and cancer. I see these kids and have some of them in my house. My kid has pizza all the time, but we eat LOTS of veggies, clean meats, and fruit. But there are many kids and families who don't, hence the obesity epidemic which I see all the time right in front of me.

If anyone wants to start talking about "crony capitalism" well, here it is. Tomato paste is nutritional but not slathered on a pizza crust made with white flour and a ton of fatty cheese on top. Anyone with a brain knows that. The potato and frozen food lobby wins over science and fricken common sense again. I'm gonna occupy the frozen food section at my local grocery store. Anyone with me?

R's fear Obama??

2011-11-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

"Roger Simon at Politico posted an article about the republican presidential debates. I find it both fascinating and horrifying that we have the group of candidates that we have. Mr. Simon feels that all Obama has to do is to allow them to debate and then when making ads, play the candidate who wins verbatim.

You mean to tell me that we are allowing people who say "oops…", That vaccine made her daughter retarded"(add red neck southern accent for additional fun), and this great one down here:

"The more toppings a man has on his pizza, I believe the more manly he is...A manly man (doesn't) want it piled high with vegetables! He would call that a sissy pizza..." to run for leader of the free world?!

You gotta be kidding me. This is what the republican party has put up to vote on? Actors from a Saturday Night Live skit? And they actually have some popular support? One thing it says to me is that the republicans think that Obama is more of a threat for re-election than they want to let on. The only candidates that seem to have sense are Hunstman, Romney, Paul and Gingrich. Gingrich looks like he's trying to sell books and two are actual contenders. But just like musician's in the 90s thought about Babyface: He's talented, but place him in with the artist/producers of just 10-20 years ago, and he'd just be another talented producer, but perhaps not the top. Romney is the same way. There are many other Republicans who are weighty, have real ideas, and though I may not agree with them, have a real vision and experience to carry them out.

I think it says a lot about the state of the electorate. We have been so let down and so entrenched in entertainment that panders to our most mind numbing feelings, we think it's ok to have a "straight talking" person run for president. That would be fine if the straight talk made sense. It makes me remember Sarah Palin and how she was made fun of on SNL by re-doing one of her interviews VERBATIM as a skit! They didn't alter it at all! This is where we've come to. It just makes us look bad as a country that these people actually have support. As I say in one of my rants, "WHAT THE HELL?!!!"

Mississippi FAIL

2011-11-12T09:24:00.000-08:00

I know this Mississippi law did not pass, but the mere fact that it was even brought up is disturbing. As a mom, I feel that as soon as you know you're pregnant, you have a little person in there. And if you want that child, you'll do anything to protect it. However, as I've been saying in some tweets lately, turning a woman's womb into a crime scene because we want to have a "culture of life" to take over?! Uh Uh…nope. I can't roll with you.

The strongest reason I have for believe that woman should have the right to have an abortion came from my Christian conservative mom. This woman was very anti-abortion (she wouldn't read Harry potter books because they have witches in them. Satan is real…she has the series about the second coming of Christ. She has them ALL) She worked in Walter Reade Hospital when abortion was illegal. Her mind changed when she saw woman after woman after woman after woman (not exaggerating here, this is what she told me first hand) who bled out and died because of botched abortions done with all manner of coat hangers, herbs, etc…She just couldn't take the death and destruction she saw so often. So if having a safe abortion provided by medical professionals would stop the death, she was for having it available.

Turning a fetus into a person has all sorts of issues associated with it that just can't be squared. I wouldn't want anything to happen to my children when they were in-utero. But should I make that choice for someone who was raped or who is 14 or who has other real and pertinent reasons for making the awful choice of ending a pregnancy?

No news story today....

2011-11-10T09:19:00.000-08:00

... just thoughts. As I work with kids of various ages I see many of the issues of our culture up close and personal. I see all levels of parenting, all levels of behavior, all levels of discipline and perseverance, frustration and fascination. I also see as a parent that what I thought was cool when I was a kid, I have second thoughts about now. I'm talking about our culture. I bring it up as a education discussion because I've been seeing so many people and news outlets saying how bad our education system is in comparison to other countries; when 20-30 years ago, we were number 1. I think part of this has to do with culture.

This is not an attack on just hip hop or Jerry Springer type entertainment. But, if Tipper Gore was still doing what she did 30 years ago with hip hop and other music that has lot violence in it, I'd kiss her on the mouth, while my younger self wanted to smack her. What I have a problem with is not with music of young people today (I sound like my grandfather,"you play that jazz music that all them younguns play…"). What I have a problem with is all media: movies, TV, Cable, internet, music, magazines billboards…EVERYTHING. There are so many mixed messages out there as to what makes a human being feel good, that we don't put enough on about what makes a good human being. Say what you like about "father knows best" from the 50s but it was clear, whether you liked it or not. The problem then was that was all there was. No shades of gray, no people that have problems, no people with melanin, etc. It is the same problem we have now except the opposite side of the coin. When there is no balance, it's very difficult to have balance. How can parents deal with showing their kids the right things to do when every media outlet shows how wonderful the wrong thing is! Not just a little, but all the dang time!

This relates to education because when kids are trying to be cool, they do what they see. And what they see is not people who are doing well because of education. When we have a presidential candidate saying he doesn't know the president of Uzbeki-eki-stany-stan, and people applaud him for that stance…that's a problem.

Remember "Goodtimes"? All the children and family may have had their issues, but they all were talented, did well in school, tried their best in difficult circumstances. I have kids who literally walk out of class BECAUSE THEY FEEL LIKE IT, and teachers having nervous breakdowns because they just can't get through. We as a culture need to decide that enough is enough and just because you can make a dinosaur from extinct DNA doesn't mean it's a good thing to create a bloodthirsty wild tyrannosaurus rex. Just because it feels good and makes money doesn't mean that it is good…let's take our responsibilities as a culture seriously for goodness sake...