I've done it before and I can do it again

Love

Be loved

Win

Be appreciated
Make friends
Be happy

Be appreciated
Not be taken for granted/be popular

Be appreciated

Love

Be appreciated
Walk away from something (or someone) good that was wrong (or bad) for me

Be appreciated
Worry for nothing

Be appreciated

Love

Be loved

                               /and by the same woman

and to be appreciated.

this is a repost

10 things I wish I had done differently

1.  stayed at a  job before quitting , 11 yrs ago  (my asshole boss left a month later)  .
2.  didn't take a job where I wasn't assigned to do anything but show up and be black.
3.  ignored my high school guidance counselor who said I wasn't intelligent enough to be an architect. 
4.  approached my grandfather and aunts with my suspicion of being adopted while they were alive.
5.  didn't allow religion to come between me and the woman I can't get over.
6.  spent the money I won from a lawsuit about 15 yrs ago more wisely.
7.   listened when my sister said that my first love was cheating on me ( I ended up raising a son that wasn't mine).
8.   approached the girls I liked in high school ( I found out years later that a few of them wondered why I  never asked them out).
9.   said yes to calculus/trigonometry in junior high school.
10.   tried to get in to law school with my brother 22 yrs ago when he asked me to do so.

I wish that foresight was 20/20 as well as hindsight. I've made so many decisions that I've regretted ( #1,2,3,6, 9, 10). I've made a few that I still stand by. What I've realized, after the fact, is, that I am always asking God to get me out of a certain situation, instead of asking Him to protect me. With that particular underwriting job in question, my boss was the ultimate asshole to me, and I prayed for an  escape. Then I took the first job that said yes. It was a health consulting firm that did business for companies housed in the Twin Towers. I didn't realize until after I started, that I wasn't going to be doing what my fellow health consultants did. The money was good but my  boss had nothing for me to do for 2 yrs. I used to beg for  training or for work while my white counter parts had too  much work to do. I would come to the office everyday, shut the door, put on  D'angelo  and Jill Scott write poetry (check this one out) and buy things on Ebay and take naps until time for lunch, and take my time coming back.   My boss at the previous job quit a month later and my friends in the department said the new boss was so cool and so much better. So, I regretted escaping as quickly as I had done, and I regretted taking that consulting gig. My cowworkers at the consulting gig had no respect for me, and the rumour was that I didn't have to work and that they needed a person of color. In the position. Because of 9 11, I was fired and it took me 7 years to back on track careewise, to where I am, at the best job I've ever had. 

I deeply, deeply regret procrastinating when my brother graduated from college and he asked me to take the Lsat. Dude makes more than 3x my salary.

I wish that foresight was 20/20 as well as hindsight.

LOL

Happy Birthday Jody Watley!

The U.S.S. Obamaship....?

Republican Releases Slave-Ship Ad

Everyone knows it's hard to talk about fiscal responsibility without referring to a slave ship with President Obama at the helm.
OK, so that's not true at all. But it is the bizarre approach a Republican congressional candidate has chosen to communicate his campaign's message.
The Huffington Post reports:
Mark Oxner, a  Republican congressional candidate from Florida, released a 39-second spot this week depicting the Obama administration as a slave ship.
The video features several men and woman on a boat -- "The U.S.S. Obamaship" -- discussing how "this ship" has given them various benefits, such as a bank bailout and "free health care for life."
The video also includes shots of children rowing the boat while a man holding a whip watches closely. 

Not-so-subtle subtext: "African-American people may have come here on ships, but now things have changed, and this black president is trying to enslave your children with all his crazy policies. Vote for me."
Unfortunately, we're not expecting emancipation from this type of transparent effort to harness racial anxiety anytime in the near future.

--Huffington Post

Rick Santorum On Opposition To Abortion In Cases Of Rape: 'Make The Best Out Of A Bad Situation'

Martin Bashir Tears Into Rep. Joe Walsh For Owing Back Child Support (VIDEO)

Martin Bashir tore into Representative Joe Walsh on Tuesday, condemning the congressman for his failure to pay over $100,000 in back child support in a live interview.
The MSNBC host was interviewing Walsh, Republican from Illinois, in the lead-up to President Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday night. Bashir suggested that Walsh had been "somewhat disrespectful" for his refusal to attend Obama's jobs speech in September, and quizzed him on his support on Newt Gingrich's plan for zero tax on capital gains.
Then, Bashir abruptly shone the light on a sore subject for the congressman. "One of the things you've repeatedly said is that you will not place another dollar on the backs of your children," Bashir said. "Haven't you already done that by inadequately paying child support that you owe to your wife and children?"
Walsh protested, "Hey Martin, that's an awkward segue on TV." He said he was fighting the issue legally and in private. Bashir pressed on, asking Walsh for his reaction to a bill that would bar people who owe over $10,000 in child support from running for public office in Illinois.
When the congressman tried to move away from the subject, Bashir insisted that it was an issue of integrity, much like Newt Gingrich's infidelity and Mitt Romney's ability to relate to the middle class. He alleged, "You are serving a constituency in Congress and yet many of your own constituents find you to be a man who seems to lack a level of integrity." The combative exchange even prompted Joy Behar to tweet, "Martin Bashir just ripped Rep. Walsh from Illinois a new one." Watch it in the clip above (starts at 6:37).
Bashir and Walsh have had hostile interviews before. Bashir is also not the first MSNBC host to lay into Rep. Walsh. Lawrence O'Donnell banned Walsh from his program over the politician's failure to pay back child support, and reiterated that ban when Walsh failed to attend a child support hearing.

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

Happy Birthday, B E T

 Black Entertainment Television (BET)  - the first black-owned company to be listed on the NYSE, began broadcasting from Washington, DC in 1980.

Santorum: Obama's a 'big boy'

Rick Santorum says President Barack Obama is a "big boy" who can defend himself against people like the woman at a Santorum town hall Monday, who called Obama an "avowed Muslim" who has no legal right to call himself president.
The woman made the statement during a Santorum event in Lady Lake, Florida, Santorum took a question from an unidentified woman who said, "I never refer to Obama as president because legally he is not, and well, he constantly says that our constitution is passé, and he totally ignores it. As you know, he does what he darn well pleases. He is an avowed Muslim, and my question is why isn't something being done to get him out of our government. He has no legal right to be calling himself president."
Santorum did not correct the woman who brought up this false claim. Instead, he responded that indeed, he was trying to get Obama out of government.
When asked by a reporter why he didn't correct the woman for calling President Obama a Muslim, Senator Santorum said, "Why do you guys ask these 'gotcha' questions like it's my job to go out and correct everybody who says something I don't agree with? It's not my responsibility, as a candidate, to correct everybody who makes a statement that I disagree with. It's not my job to go out and defend the president every time someone says something that I disagree with them. It's a media 'gotcha' thing -- If a woman has an opinion that is obviously not one that I have repeatedly said that I disagree with. At every turn, I don't have to say that, OK?"

An AP reporter, Philip Elliott, later tweeted: "Santorum also says Obama "a big boy" who can "defend himself" from those like the birther who says POTUS is a Muslim."
Check this out

JESUS' Resume

Address: Ephesians 1:20

Phone: Romans 10:13
Website: The Bible . Keywords: Christ, Lord, Savior and Jesus

_____________________________________________________

Objective

My name is Jesus -The Christ. Many call me Lord! I've sent you my resume because I'm seeking the top management position in your heart. Please consider my accomplishments as set forth in my resume.

_____________________________________________________________________

Qualifications

I founded the earth and established the heavens, (See Proverbs 3:19)

I formed man from the dust of the ground, (See Genesis 2:7)

I breathed into man the breath of life, (See Genesis 2:7)

I redeemed man from the curse of the law, (See Galatians 3:13)

The blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant comes upon your life through me, (See Galatians 3:14)

_____________________________________________________________________

Occupational Background

I've only had one employer, (See Luke 2:49 ).

I've never been tardy, absent, disobedient, slothful or disrespectful.

My employer has nothing but rave reviews for me, (See Matthew 3:15 -17)

_____________________________________________________________________

Skills Work Experiences

Some of my skills and work experiences include: empowering the poor to be poor no more, healing the brokenhearted, setting the captives free, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind and setting at liberty them that are bruised, (See Luke 4:18).

I am a Wonderful Counselor, (See Isaiah 9:6). People who listen to me shall dwell safely and shall not fear evil, (See Proverbs 1:33 ).

Most importantly, I have the authority, ability and power to cleanse you of your sins, (See I John 1:7-9)

_____________________________________________________________________

Educational Background

I encompass the entire breadth and length of knowledge, wisdom and understanding, (See Proverbs 2:6).

In me are hid all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, (See Colossians 2:3).

My Word is so powerful; it has been described as being a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path, (See Psalms 119:105).

I can even tell you all of the secrets of your heart, (See Psalms 44:21).

_____________________________________________________________________

Major Accomplishments

I was an active participant in the greatest Summit Meeting of all times, (See Genesis 1:26 ).

I laid down my life so that you may live, (See II Corinthians 5:15 ).

I defeated the arch enemy of God and mankind and made a show of them openly, (See Colossians 2:15 ).

I've miraculously fed the poor, healed the sick and raised the dead!

There are many more major accomplishments, too many to mention here. You can read them on my website, which is located at: www dot - the BIBLE. You don't need an Internet connection or computer to access my website.

_____________________________________________________________________

References

Believers and followers worldwide will testify to my divine healing, salvation, deliverance, miracles, restoration and supernatural guidance.

_____________________________________________________________________

In Summation

Now that you've read my resume, I'm confident that I'm the only candidate uniquely qualified to fill this vital position in your heart. In summation, I will properly direct your paths, (See Proverbs 3:5-6), and lead you into everlasting life, (See John 6:47 ). When can I start? Time is of the essence, (See Hebrews 3:15 ).

Send this resume to everyone you know,
You never know who may have an opening!
Thanks for your help.

Black Indie Filmmaker Pens Letter to Lucas

George Lucas' recent comments about the difficulty of securing funding for Red Tails -- the movie headline-grabbing movie released this week that chronicles the groundbreaking achievements of the Tuskegee Airmen -- have plenty of African Americans rushing to buy tickets to prove Hollywood naysayers wrong.

It seems the black film community is on the edge of its seat, too. The African-American creator of After the Storm, an independent film about Post-Katrina New Orleans, has penned an open letter thanking Lucas for his honesty about the racial issues that surrounded the production of Red Tails. He pledges the support of "our country’s unheralded brigade of black actors, writers and filmmakers" to step forward and support the project.
Read a few excerpts here:
Mr. Lucas, I must tell you that your recent comments on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart are greatly appreciated. It was a brave and bold stance that was likely motivated by years of frustration. It is clear that you have experienced an unfortunate journey that all too many African-American filmmakers have had to contend with for decades.

Making movies is exceedingly difficult regardless of the ethnicity of those in front of or behind the camera. Unfortunately, these obstacles are magnified when the primary collaborators of a project happen to be black. As you mentioned, no matter how compelling these stories may be, many of these films are tagged as “not marketable” before they even get to see the light of day. Sadly, it is a constant struggle for black storytellers to overcome the fallacy that black films are simply a collection of ultra-niche, second-rate fodder.

That is why we, the black film community, are ready to step forward and show everyone what we are capable of . . .

Regardless of how many tickets are sold at the box office in the next few days, I believe that one simple truth will remain . . .

 

Red Tails will fly high.

Sincerely,

Colen C. Wiley – Writer

Director

Producer, After the Storm

--courtesy, the root.com

So, where will you be watching Red Tails this opening weekend?   I'm watching it tonight. By the time my short stories are made into movies, I want to be sure there's a market for them/that hollywood will think of black action films as profitable.

Rest In Peace, Etta James

Etta James, whose assertive, earthy voice lit up such hits as "The Wallflower," "Something's Got a Hold on Me" and the wedding favorite "At Last," has died, according to her longtime friend and manager, Lupe De Leon. She was 73.

She died from complications from leukemia with her husband, Artis Mills, and her sons by her side, De Leon said.
She was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010, and also suffered from dementia and hepatitis C. James died at a hospital in Riverside, California. She would have turned 74 Wednesday.

Friday Flashback

Thursday Flashback

I don't care if  Sanaa Lathan, and  Halle Berry, and Dollicia Bryan, and Janet Jackson, and Selma Hayek wanted me  all at once,

(or Dollicia Bryan all by herself)

I will never, ever, go on a cruise ship.
never well, maybe never, ever 

The Costa Concordia

I can't swim.

Madonna said

                It's better to live one year as a tiger, than a hundred as a sheep.

all you must hold on to is you

Listening to...

New TV Programming “Find Our Missing” To Draw More Attention To Missing Black Women

        “Find Our Missing,” a handsomely produced 10-part docu-series about unsolved cases, premieres Wednesday night on TV One, and it is not nearly outspoken enough about its cause: It’s a show about cases of black people who vanished suspiciously and who, for reasons that should probably embarrass producers at local and national news operations, never got the same amount of media attention as their white counterparts.

        This discrepancy has been pointed out many times over the years by minority groups that track media coverage. Most watchers of TV news (and readers of newspapers and online news sites) have probably noticed it, too, if perhaps only subliminally. Missing white women just get more press, often to an extreme, as do missing white children — especially cherubic toddlers from sunny states.
        According to TV One (a cable network focused on programming for black adults), blacks make up nearly a third of the nation’s missing-person cases, a number demographically out of proportion.

        But “Find Our Missing’s” main mission isn’t media criticism or a social harangue — especially since the first two cases seen here received a considerable, if belated, amount of local coverage. Rather, in the manner of “America’s Most Wanted,” it encourages viewers to come forward with useful information. Everything you need to know about “Find Our Missing” is in that second word: our. The series keeps its outrage just out of view; its foremost concern is for the missing, as well as their friends and relatives.
        Hosted by “Law & Order” alum S. Epatha Merkerson, “Find Our Missing’s” first case should be familiar to Washington Post readers: It follows the February 2009 disappearance of Pamela Butler, a 47-year-old federal employee who was last seen in her Brightwood home in Northeast Washington. (The segment features interviews with Post crime reporter Paul Duggan; a future episode will focus on the case of Unique Harris, whose 2010 disappearance was written about in a Style section article by Monica Hesse.)
        In Butler’s case, detectives are stumped by a dearth of evidence that would suggest she was killed at home, or even attacked and kidnapped. Her boyfriend at the time, Jose Rodriguez-Cruz, is interviewed for the show — although he insisted on being silhouetted — and says he had nothing to do with her disappearance.
        The first episode also looks at the case of an Oakland, Calif., 5-year-old named Hasanni Campbell. Hasanni vanished from an alley parking lot in broad daylight while under the care of a foster father, whose story about what happened comes across here as deeply suspect.
        "Find Our Missing” is curiously restrained in this regard, shrugging its shoulders with ambivalent doubt. Nancy Grace-style ferocity and judgment are not the point here, nor even is a John Walsh-like determination. “Find Our Missing” is a quiet and even forlorn voice that speaks for the silent.

--courtesy, the washington post.




        I happen to have a Nielsen rating monitor on every television in my home, and so the television shows I watched are part of the Nielsen rating. I have this series already set to record on my DVR.

Note to self

 Enjoy life. This is not a dress rehearsal.
                --author unknown

STATIC

“ People die, Luther.”

        Those were the words she said to me in her failed attempt to console me, to get me to realize the frailness of mortality. Those 3 words cut through me like a hot knife through butter. It did nothing to keep me from crying even more.

        “Luther, people do die”.

        She said it again, each word deliberately spoken, as if to drive the point home. This time it was followed by: “You’re gonna die. I’m gonna die. Everybody in this funeral parlor and outside is gonna die. The whole world is gonna die. We will all be replaced by others who will die as well.”

        I watched her lips move to form the words. I looked up at her eyes. They were oval, black and piercing. Her skin was tanned. I guessed that she was probably Arabic, or Persian, or maybe a Latina. She had long black hair pulled back in a ponytail. At maybe 6 feet, she was maybe three inches taller than myself. She was lean, and like every woman that was present, she wore a black dress. I guessed her to be maybe in her late twenties. I didn’t even know who she was. I never saw her before, but she knew all about me.

        I asked her out following the burial, at the cemetery. It was my twin brother who was being put six feet under; I asked her out, and she said yes.

        Why did I ask her out? And why did she say yes?

        5 years later, after having married her, I’m still asking that question. Friends say there’s something about the fact that Carmen doesn’t sugar-coat anything. You always get the truth with her. She keeps it real. I don’t know. I prefer to call it cold-hearted rudeness, bluntness, and bluntness leaves a lot to be desired.

        Why did I marry her?

        I think Carmen came to me in a dream and said those words before she approached me at the funeral parlor. I had never seen her before. My brother, Tony and I, were identical twins. We were close, up until about a month before his death, but I still knew just about everyone he knew. His friends were my friends. His enemies were automatically my enemies even if I didn’t know them or what they did to become his enemies. We worked at the same law firm. We had the same vices. He smoked weed and I smoked weed. We even lost our virginity on the same night, with the same woman (our football coaches’ wife).

        I’ve been told I’ve done a lot of bad things in the past, but the medication Carmen insists that I take once at night and once in the morning has been a great help in controlling my behavior. She says I’m a better husband when I take the medication; she says I’m more amorous.

        Carmen and I get along well. There’s a lot of passion between us. We now have two beautiful 3yr old twin girls who are the loves of my life, but I ask that question to myself every day. Why did I ask her out?

        Maybe because of the three words, said twice: “I know everything,”  followed by: “Your brother told me where it was hidden, and I retrieved it and hid it some place else.”

        I can’t be held responsible for every bad thing that occurs, can I? I’ve been waiting for 5 years for the other shoe to drop. And I’m nervous.


--Alexgeorge

Brown Baby

Brown baby
Brown baby
As years roll by
Walk with your head held high
I want you to live by
Live by the justice code
I want you to walk down
Walk down the freedom road...

Shafiq Husayn, let it rain

Happy Birthday, First Lady Michelle Obama!

One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don't invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.

--First Lady Michelle Obama


Note- This is a repost from her birthday,  last year. I just love this quote of hers and felt it beared repeating, at least for myself!

Quote of the day

“I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”-- Muhammad Ali

This is a repost

HAPPY  70th birthday, Muhammad Ali!

'Red Tails' Travails Highlight Hollywood's Racism

George Lucas put Hollywood on blast during an interview with Daily Show host Jon Stewart about his struggle to find a distributor for his latest work, Red Tails.The Hollywood veteran did not bite his tongue while explaining why he had such a tough time, Mediabistro reports:
”It’s because it’s an all-black movie. There’s no major white roles in it at all. It’s one of the first all-black action pictures ever made.
Lucas spent 23 years making the film, which is based on the true story of a crew of African American pilots who fought in World War II and helped start the civil rights movement. “I financed it myself. I figured I could get the prints and ads paid for by the studios and that they would release it,” he explained to Stewart. “And I showed it to all of them, and they said, ‘Noooo. We don’t know how to market a movie like this.’ It’s not green enough.” And by green, Lucas means profitable.

I'm only one person, but I want to do my part to encourage Hollywood to put out more black movies, so I will be at Regal Pioneer Place Stadium  Theatre, watching it, opening weekend. Where will you be seeing it, open weekend?

FD HIDDEN DIV

FD HIDDEN DIV

3 Kings

You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.

compassion

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?

       --Dr Martin Luther King Jr    

  

Don't Forget the Climb to the Mountaintop

Youth must know the histories of freedom struggles beyond MLK and Mandela, says a civil rights vet.

Jesse Jackson Sr. talked about the "parallel histories" of the American and South African quests for racial justice as he recalled some of the leaders and foot soldiers of each struggle during the ANC's 100th anniversary celebration recently. As I listened, I found myself wondering how many of the younger generation in either country could relate such stories off the tops of their heads. The stories of those struggles aren't told in their fullness and complexity in the schools of either nation.

Recent studies in the U.S., for example, report that the younger generation's knowledge about even the civil rights movement of the 1960s -- let alone the generations-old history of black resistance to unjust laws designed to keep them "in their place" -- is practically non-existent. They might know about Martin Luther King Jr., and maybe Rosa Parks. But what about all the others who led President Barack Obama to say that he stood "on the shoulders of giants"?
The same is true of the younger generation in South Africa, whose members are referred to as the "born frees" (born after Nelson Mandela was released and became the country's first president who was elected by all the people). Many of the "born frees" in South Africa know the name Mandela, but they know the names of few others who walked beside him or blazed the trail for his long walk to freedom.
To address young Americans' lack of knowledge, I wrote To the Mountaintop: My Journey Through the Civil Rights Movement for young readers -- ninth grade though college -- based on my own experience as one of two students to desegregate the University of Georgia, as well as my subsequent journey through the civil rights era. The title was inspired by the enduring and prescient speech Dr. King gave in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated. He was encouraging the striking sanitation workers who had brought him there, telling them there would be "some difficult days ahead," but that he had "been to the mountaintop," had "seen the promised land," that "we, as a people, will get to the promised land."
I wrote this chronicle of the movement not just for the record, but to give this generation the history that will help them appreciate the groundbreaking freedom trail they and their country traveled. I hope to help them understand that 1) there can be no progress without struggle and 2) it is important to remain vigilant in order to protect the gains of the past, and to hold America and its leaders accountable when our hard-won democratic rights are threatened, as they appear to be today, in some instances.
As I read reports of efforts to put obstacles in the paths of young black voters today in order to help ensure certain outcomes in the next national elections, I am reminded of the ways in which white racist Southerners prevented blacks from registering to vote for years prior to the civil rights movement of the 1960s: making them take literacy tests that even the white administrators probably couldn't pass and publishing the names of blacks who had attempted to register at a time when hooded night riders and other not-hooded whites made sport of killing "uppity blacks" with impunity. The law -- or at least those in charge of enforcing the law -- was on their side.
Young civil rights activists and local blacks who joined black voter registration drives were often killed, or otherwise brutally made to pay for their efforts. But they joined the effort prepared, if necessary, to die. They did so in the righteous belief in a Constitution that extolled and affirmed the rights of all America's citizens, regardless of race, creed or color, and also with the conviction born of the faith in their own values that one day, righteousness would prevail.
We may have come a long way from those cruel days, but those days should not be forgotten, not least the price so many paid so that young people today can indeed be free to help decide the kind of country in which they want to live and whom they want to represent them. I was uplifted when young people of all races followed the path my generation blazed and filed out of their classrooms into the streets and byways to register voters for the historic campaign that led to Barack Obama's election. And I am holding my breath now as I read that disillusioned young voters are more likely to skip Election Day in 2012.


Excuse me!

Did Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner die for the next generation to be disillusioned when things didn't go as they had hoped? Did John Lewis get disillusioned when he took more blows to his head from racist white policemen's billy clubs than maybe any other civil rights activist? Did Brenda Travis get disillusioned when her high school principal expelled her after she was arrested for taking part in civil rights sit-ins in McComb, Miss., or when she was sentenced to a year in a harsh Mississippi prison for participating in the sit-ins?
I'm thinking yes, and maybe, just maybe, if they know their history, young people today will realize that freedom isn't free, and that the freedom they enjoy today comes at a price: the price of vigilance necessary to maintain it. I want young people -- of all races and colors -- to know where they came from, and even if they have no one in their family directly connected with the civil rights movement, they have the American Family that benefited mightily from it.
Once they know this history, if they choose to claim it, they, too, can say -- with the certainty spoken by Barack Obama in 2008 -- that they, too, stand on the shoulders of giants and that they, too, can move to ensure their country lives up to its promise with the kind of confidence that history surely inspires.


Charlayne Hunter-Gault, the root.com


Don't forget!

Romney cartoon

Study: African-American Boys Receive Less Attention, Lower Grades And Harsher Punishment In School

A recent study by the Yale University Child Study Center shows that Black children — especially boys — no matter their family income, receive less attention, harsher punishment and lower marks in school than their White counterparts from kindergarten all the way through college. A subsequent article published in “The Washington Post” reported that Black children in the Washington, D.C. area are suspended or expelled two to five times more often than White children. It’s a national trend that needs to be addressed.

Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project joined Roland Martin on Washington Watch to discuss this disturbing trend.

Word of the day

Romney

(verb) to defecate in terror

This colloquialism originates in the infamous and widely publicized 1983 incident where Mitt Romney strapped his Irish setter, Seamus, to the roof of his car whilst driving to Canada, causing the terrified dog to defecate.


"The door of the cab literally GRAZED my knee as it whizzed by. I nearly Romneyed!"

--The urban dictionary

 I know a few people that have defended what he did, saying that was the 80's. Here's the recap: sometime during a 12-hour drive from Boston to Canada in 1983, Mitt’s oldest son, Tagg, noticed a brown liquid running down the rear window of the family station wagon. Realizing the liquid was being discharged by their dog, Mitt pulled off the highway and into a gas station, borrowed a hose to wash down Seamus and the car, and then returned the dog to his rooftop carrier for the duration of the trip.
The fact that he hosed it down and put  him back on the top of the car like it was a piece of furniture shows the heartlessness of this man wanting to be the president.  His excuse was "the dog loved to go for a drive," but somewhere along the way, the dog obviously stopped loving it.  And he hosed it down and put it right back on top of the car.

when a picture says it all.

"I like being able to fire people who provide services to me."

Mitt Romney has spent a lot of time and money in order to sell himself as a traditional “conservative businessman,” but one image could shatter that carefully crafted narrative.
The image shows Romney on an airline tarmac yesterday, sitting down, while being scanned by airline security, prior to boarding his private jet. The image evokes thoughts of a wealthy, out of touch, elitist — exactly the image Romney opponents hope to communicate.

Microsoft shows you how to avoid the ghetto

Microsoft Corporation is taking heat for a patent it filed for what is being called the “Avoid Ghetto” GPS App. The app esentially links up with your GPS or Smartphone and when you are approaching an area that, based on crime statistics or racial make-up, is deemed undesirable it gives you directions around it.
Sarah E. Chinn, author of Technology and the Logic of American Racism, told AOL Autos, said of the fine line a technology walks between useful and racist.
“It’s pretty appalling. Of course, an application like this defines crime pretty narrowly, since all crimes happen in all kinds of neighborhoods. I can’t imagine that there aren’t perpetrators of domestic violence, petty and insignificant drug possession, fraud, theft, and rape in every area.”
Chin made an interesting point where she stressed that even though it may give people less of a nervous feeling to not get lost and wind up in a really bad neighborhood, the vast majority of crime is committed by people that know each other so this app would not really improve driver safety.
She did state an interesting idea though that flips the coin a bit:
“A more useful app would be for young black men to be able to map blocks with the highest risks of their being pulled over or stopped on the street by police. That phenomenon affects many more people than the rare occurrences of random violence against motorists driving through ‘bad’ neighborhoods.”
How do you feel about the Microsoft “Avoid Ghetto” App?

--courtesy inquistr.com

WTF?

Damn, damn, damn

                             Halle Berry Engaged to Olivier Martinez

"I will never marry again," Halle Berry declared to Oprah in 2004. "I mean it with every bone in my body." Three years later, the twice-divorced star promised In Style, "I will never, never get married again."

But Halle apparently just needed the proper motivation to rethink her anti-matrimonial stance.

People Magazine confirms that Halle, 45, has accepted a diamond-and-emerald engagement ring from her French actor beau, Olivier Martinez.

The bauble, from jewelry designer Gurhan, appears to be the same eye-catching accessory that Berry stepped out sporting last week, setting off a new round of betrothal speculation.

Us Weekly says Martinez, who hooked up with Halle while filming the still-on-the-shelf thriller "Dark Tide" in the summer of 2010, popped the question over the holidays.

An insider tells the mag that the Oscar winner "had given up on being married, but she trusts Olivier. He makes her feel safe. He's a keeper!"

That trust was in evidence on New Year's Day, when paparazzi captured Martinez, who turns 46 on Thursday, playing on a Malibu beach with her 3-year-old daughter. Halle's five-year romance with Nahla's dad, model Gabriel Aubry, ended in early 2010, and they spent much of last year tussling over custody issues.

--courtesy, wonderwall.com

My day was good until I heard this.   :(     Maybe the third times' the charm.

Happy Birthday, Mary J.Blige

Some Diana Ross for the afternoon

An open letter to the people who hate Obama more than they love America

I meet you all the time. You hate Obama. You hate gay people. You hate black people, immigrants, Muslims, labor unions, women who want the right to make choices concerning their bodies, you hate em all. You hate being called racist. You hate being called a bigot. Maybe if you talked about creating jobs more than you talk about why you hate gay people we wouldn't call you bigots. Maybe if you talked about black people without automatically assuming they are on food stamps while demanding their birth certificates we wouldn't call you racist. You hate socialism and social justice. You hate regulations and taxes and spending and the Government. You hate.

You like war. You like torture. You like Jesus. I don't know how in the hell any of that is compatible, but no one ever accused you haters of being over-committed to ideological consistency. You like people who look like you or at least hate most of the things that you hate. You hate everything else.

Now, I know you profess to love our country and the founding fathers (unless you are reminded that they believed in the separation of church and state), but I need to remind you that America is NOT what Fox News says it is. America is a melting pot, it always has been. We are a multi-cultural amalgamation of all kinds of people, and yet you still demonize everyone who is not a rich, white, heterosexual christian male or his submissive and obedient wife.
You hate liberals, moderates, hell, anyone who disagrees with Conservative dogma as espoused by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. You hate em.
Well, here are the facts, Jack. If you hate the Government then you are unqualified to manage it. If you hate gay people more than you love America than you should take your own advice and get the hell out. There are several countries that are openly hostile to gay people, but they are full of brown people and you don't like them much either from what I understand. It looks like you are screwed, but that's not what I am here to tell you.
Now that you have thrown everything and the kitchen sink at President Obama and it still hasn't worked you are panicking. Obama's approval ratings are still near 50% despite your best efforts to undermine the economy and America's recovery at every step you can. You tried to hold the American economy hostage to force America into default on its' debts, debts that YOU rang up under Bush, so you could blame it on Obama and it failed. You've used the filibuster more than any other Congress ever, going so far as to vote against providing health care access to 9/11 first responders. You remember 9/11, don't you, it's that thing you used to lie us into a war in Iraq, and then when Obama killed Bin Laden and ended the war in Iraq you told people that he hates America and wants the troops to fail. You monsters. You hate Obama with a passion, despite the fact that he is a tax cutting, deficit reducing war President who undermines civil rights and delivers corporate friendly watered down reforms that benefit special interests just like a Republican. You call him a Kenyan. You call him a socialist. You dance with your hatred singing it proudly in the rain like it was a 1950's musical.

Frankly, you disgust me. Your hatred nauseates me. Your bigotry offends me. Your racism revolts me.

Dear haters, I am openly questioning your patriotism.
I think you hate gays, Obama, black people, poor people, all of us, women, atheists and agnostics, Latinos, Muslims, Liberals, all of us, I think you hate every one who isn't exactly like you, and I think you hate us more than you love your country.
I think you hate gay soldiers more than you want America to win its wars.
I don't even think you want America to win wars, you just want America to have wars, never ending wars and the war profiteering it generates. You love that kind of spending, you love spending on faith based initiatives and abstinence based sex education (George Carlin would have loved that one), you love spending on subsidies for profitable oil corporations, you spend like drunken sailors when you are in the White House, but if it is a Democrat then suddenly you cheer when America doesn't get the Olympics because it might make the black President look bad. But oooh you love your country, you say, and you want it back. Well listen here skippy, it isn't your country, you don't own it, it is our country, and America is NOT the religiously extremist Foxbots who hate science, elitist professors and having a vibrant and meaningful sex life with someone we love if Rick Santorum doesn't approve of it. Rick Santorum isn't running for America's fucking high school dance chaperone, he should probably just shut the hell up about sex, but he can't because he has nothing else to run on.
Republicans can NOT win on the issues. They've got NOTHING. All they have is a divide and conquer class war that pits ignorant racist and bigoted people against the rest of us in a meaningless battle of wedge issues and the already proven to fail George W. Bush agenda again of tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, privatization and war profiteering and nothing else, so all they can do is blame black people, gays the government, anybody and everyone else for their own failings. The party of personal responsibility, my ass.
But they love multi-national corporations, just ask a gay hating and racist religious extremist if they think Corporations are people and they will gladly agree, but if you ask them if gay people are people they aren't so sure.
Dear haters, you are the cruel, heartless misinformed assholes who would sell America out to Haliburton in a heartbeat, you would rather pay ZERO taxes than you would see a newly born baby get access to quality health care, you cheer when we discuss denying health care to young people with preventable diseases, and you boo when we discuss the First Ladies plan to cut back on childhood obesity. You are a cross to carry and a flag to wrap yourself in away from being the people who Sinclair Lewis warned us about, but I guarantee that if Fox News told you to dress that way you would, because you are the same blind, ignorant and closed minded dunces who drove this country into a civil war years ago because you are bound to the notion that some men are more equal than others. In short, the reason I proudly wear my union army hat is because of seditious sell outs like you who constantly fuck over working class Americans so a foreign entrepreneur like Rupert Murdoch can get a bigger tax break. If corporations are people, they are neither American patriots nor capable of love. Just like you.
So stop wearing your hate with pride. Stop celebrating your anti-science, anti-math ignorance. Stop using code words to mask your bigotry like "family values", especially when you hate my family and when you stand on the same stage as a guy who has had three marriages or if you share a seat in the Senate with a guy who cheated on his wife with hookers while wearing diapers. You should be ashamed. I know that you are just doing this to motivate your misinformed hate cult base because if they actually knew that your ideas will make them poorer than they are now, they would never vote for you. You are doing your best to impoverish your countrymen so rich people can get bigger tax breaks and you can keep on delivering corporate welfare to the special interests who have bribed you, and I am disgusted by the way you gleefully parade your hatred with aplomb. I don't think you do love America. At least, not as much as you hate everyone in America who isn't exactly like you.
You should think about that, and maybe get some help.
And for the record, I do not hate you. I am embarrassed by you and nauseated by your cruel and thoughtless behavior and your all consuming greed, but I do not hate you. I forgive you and I hope you can change someday, but I don't hate you. You have enough hate in you for the rest of us as it is.

--courtesy, JesseLaGreca    Daily Kos


.

Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?

Parents and activists in Atlanta blasted Beaver Ridge Elementary School in Gwinnett County for giving students a math worksheet that used examples of slavery in word problems.
The worksheet included questions such as, "Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?" and "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week?"
Following the uproar, school officials said they would come up with more appropriate lessons and offer staff development training. But parents don't think that's enough in a school that is made up predominantly of minority students. They called for diversity training for the teachers and administrators, as well as for district officials.
"It kind of blew me away," Christopher Braxton, the father of a Beaver Ridge student, told Channel 2. "I was furious. Something like this shouldn't be embedded into a kid of the third, fourth, fifth, any grade."
School officials said that they were trying to incorporate history into some of their third-grade math lessons.
"Clearly, they did not do as good of a job as they should have done," district spokeswoman Sloan Roach told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
While you may not be able to call people racists based just on this word problem, you have to question their cultural sensitivity and sense when they do something of this nature. Our nation's history should never be forgotten and should always be taught in schools, but this was the wrong way to do it.

--courtesy,  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution


This is too upsetting for words.

F Y I

The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
-    Steven Biko

-Relax

John McCain Endorses President Obama For Another Term At Mitt Romney Rally!!!

Remember when people said they thought John Mc Cain was too old to be president? They may have been right!
While he was supposed to be endorsing Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential candidacy at a rally in South Carolina, the senator told the conservative crowd he is confident President Obama will turn this country around.
It takes a few seconds to sink in, but Mitt casually steps in to remind old John what he was supposed to say. This is one of the best political blooper's we've ever seen and maybe even…a Freudian slip?
Check out the video below and slap this on your favorite Republican's Facebook wall!
This may be on ominous sign for poor Mr. Romney! 

where the devil can't find me

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. 
                   ~Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.

b4 it's too late

Another Thursday Flashback

Thursday Flashback

Did you hear about the black girl who was deported to Columbia?

For more than 15 months, Lorene Turner had been looking for her missing granddaughter Jakadrien Turner. She would even look on Facebook, hoping to find any sign of her.
“It's very frustrating," Lorene Turner told WFAA. "Once I get home, I am up until 3 or 4 in the morning searching and looking. It's all I can think about: finding my baby."
The 15-year-old girl went missing in the fall of 2010; she had been distraught after her parents' divorce and the death of her grandfather. But in April 2011, Turner found out, with the help of Dallas police, that the girl had been deported to, of all places, Colombia.
"They didn't do their work," Turner said. "How do you deport a teenager and send her to Colombia without a passport, without anything?"
Jakadrien was reportedly in Houston when she went missing and was arrested by cops for theft. She then gave officers a fake name. Unfortunately for her, that name belonged to an illegal immigrant from Colombia whom the cops were looking for. Jakadrien was then deported to Colombia, where she received a work card and went through some hard labor.
"She talked about how they had her working in this big house cleaning all day, and how tired she was," Turner said.
But if you thought this story ended with Jakadrien coming back home, you are wrong. The Colombian government is still holding the young girl and refuses to release her.
"I feel like she will come home," the grandmother said with tears in her eyes. "I just need help and prayer."
When a young girl who doesn't speak a lick of Spanish gets transferred from Houston to Colombia without anybody checking her records, it shows how flawed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is. We are praying for the safe return of this young girl to her family, and hope they take the government to court for a mistake that has cost them so much time together.

-- courtesy, the root.com

One word for 2011

If you could sum up the year 2011 in  one word, what would it be, and why?


I don't have a word yet...

Here’s to a New Year that will be Worth IT, for one and all.

In need of a testimony?

You can't have a testimony without a test.

Your blessings aren't always big. Sometimes they're small. God isn't ready when you're ready for your blessing, but I do believe that He will give you small blessings along the way, to tide you over, to remind you (me) that he is working it out on your (my) behalf and that you (I) need to be patient.

Here's a testimony, one of many:

4 years ago, about 3 months before I got this job offer, I worked at Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company in Milwaukee Wisconsin. I was miserable, and I was broke. 4 days away from payday, I balanced my checkbook as that morning  to see how much I had and realized that I hadn't managed my money well since the last pay period, and I had three dollars to my name. My ex girlfriend's cat  (I got custody of him when we broke up) had ran out of food, my car was almost on E, and I didn't want my new girlfriend to know I was broke at the time. While at work that morning I was at my desk, and I was talking to God like I normally do, and I said, "God, I just need $20 and that would be enough to tide me over until I get paid. I only live a mile from work, and I don't need a full tank. Just $10 of it for gas. I have a pantry and fridge full of food but I need to feed Isaiah." I said that to Him and had that thought in my mind while at work and while I had built the courage to ask friends for a loan. I don't do that- I don't ask people for favors unless I am backed in a corner and I've exhausted all other options. Well, I had no other options, and so, at my morning break when I was to meet a couple friends for coffee, I was going to ask them, but guess what happened within an hour of my talking to God?

A coworker, an older lady , someone I didn't know particularly well and had only said good morning, hello, or have as good evening, in passing, walked over to my desk, and said:

"Hi Alieux. I woke up in the middle of the night and  you were on my mind, and then when I went back to sleep and woke up this morning,  God told me to give you $20. I don't know why.  I ignored Him and I got myself and my kids up for work and to take them to school, and when I was driving to work  He told me again, give him $20. Well, I got to work, and its in my head, again and again. And I ignored Him and I went to breakfast, and you were on my mind again  so I decided that I better give you this $20 or God will pester me until I do!"  Then she gave me the $20 and she went back to her desk immediately.   I was speechless. 

I quickly emailed her, thanking her for the money and telling her I would pay her on friday. She said  'don't thank me. Thank God, and don't pay me back. It's not a gift. It's a give. God told me to give it to you, not loan it to you!  :)  ' . 

So that I could let her know why God had put it on her heart to give me the $20,  I told her that as recently as maybe 10 minutes before she brought the money over to me, I was telling God that I'd be happy if I had at least $20. 

She told me that she was glad that she didn't ignore God, and therefore preventing the blessing. I'm glad too, because it was a blessing. 

God knew I needed the money before I knew I needed the money. He had put it her mind  in the middle of the night. He was already planting the seeds.       You can't have a testimony without a test.
 


 

        

         inhale love. exhale hate.

Day 1

I can’t believe Christmas has come and gone already.  I had a terrible Christmas week at home and I said goodbye to 2011 and I welcomed 2012 at church, on my knees.  I hope all of you had a fun and enjoyable Christmas holiday. I'm hoping that 2012  will be good to me.
I've made a few resolutions the other day and as the first few days of 2012 go by, I may add more to the list, according to my mood, my needs, and my reality. The overall theme though, will be that  falure is not an option.
As I write this, what first comes to mind is procrastination.I've been pretty good at blogging, and not so good at my short story novella writing. I always planned on writing a thousand words a day, but life always seemed to get in the way.  I kept putting it off to tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow. Well tomorrow came today. I made it come today. I had breakfast with a good friend, and when I got home, I opened a bottle of champagne, and  I've been sipping and writing since then. I worked on three short stories novellas that had been in my head the past few months. I wrote 75 pages today. I'm happy. I have 4 more short story novella ideas in my head to put on paper. Once I've edited what I've written today, I will start on them, while sending out individual manuscripts for publication. Hopefully by Mid- February, Designer Strait Jackets and other Stories will be ready to send to publishers.

Banana Cake with Hazelnut  Buttercreme frosting

There are other things I tend to put of as well, but that was last year. In 2011, I've baked about thirty-four cakes, 10 of which were for birthday or other celebration gifts, 12 for dinner parties of which I was responsible for desserts, 8 cakes that were ordered, and about 4 cakes given to friends for no reason,  all from recipes that are in my head. I hope, this year, like in my previous resolutions, not to do anything out of the goodness of my heart for those that don't appreciate it, to start charging for the cakes that I am asked to bake and maybe even write a cookbook.


There are other things I tend to put off as well, but that was last year. Failure is not an option in 2012.