DarkStar Spouts Off

Dead Cop, Few Care

A cop was killed when a person chose to escape from a crime in progress by running the cop over. The suspected killer was killed while in jail. He was in solitary confinement and under watch. It turns out that he was strangled to death.

The prison guards aren't talking.

It wasn't clear why the correctional officers reportedly declined to answer questions. Sgt. Curtis Knowles, president of the county's correctional officers union, said the union's position is that its members can be interviewed only during work hours and with a union representative or attorney present, unless a criminal investigation is underway.

However, a state police spokesman said the agency considers its efforts a "criminal investigation."

And the police are mad the policeman's death is not getting the attention it deserves.

County police expressed frustration yesterday that the controversy over White's death seemed to be overshadowing the death of Findley, whose funeral is scheduled for tomorrow.

Well, they can thank the person/people who killed the cop-killer suspect.

Here is some attention.

Free Moment For Quick Brain Pellets

Supreme Court 2nd Amendment Ruling - I like the ruling, especially them striking down the requirement for trigger locks. I think trigger locks on guns in a home with children make sense and I think keeping guns loaded with kids around is foolish. But don't mandate, as does Maryland, that if the gun doesn't have integrated trigger locks, they can't be sold. The next stage of the fight will be to define what are "good gun regulations."

And I still wonder how Black people can be against gun ownership when many Blacks live in neighborhoods where police response is DOCUMENTED to be slower than in other areas.

Mugabe - Gangsta. Straight. Gangsta.

Bush Tax Cuts - Why should I be for the repeal, or should I say, supportive of letting the tax cuts sunset when, as the head of a family which a child, the tax cuts get to "allow" me to keep more of my money?

Mortgage Issues - I say again, let the people who got mortgage loans they couldn't afford in the long run, sink or swim. The current relief plans being discussed bail out the companies who made the loans based on bad business decisions, and puts the bad debt on the backs of U.S. taxpayers. There is no incentive to force change on the people getting the loans nor those making the loans. If big daddy government is going to bail out these businesses, what is going to stop them from doing it again? (Isn't that the same rationale used against welfare?)

Corn - From Cobb's post, I responded with this:

There is a documentary about 2 people who farm 1 acre of corn and follow the corn path through the markets that is eye opening. Everything stated here and more.

I've stopped drinking soda because of the movie. That movie did it. I don't each much beef anyway. But all of the food allergies people are developing is really starting to become an issue to look at for me.

Dirty Jobs - Dirty Jobs is one of the best shows on television. Cable television really is challenging, and many times surpassing, traditional broadcast shows. Mike Rowe is off but has to be one of the best overall in shape persons on television.

Politics and the Presidential Race - I'm going to do a series of posts about political things/ideas/theories that interest me and how they will affect how I vote and who I vote against, more so than who I vote for. I'll end it by stating who will not get my vote and who will, by default, get my vote. I think it's going to be interesting.

Blogger's Round Table -- I return on Monday.

Comments R Us: Commentary On Black Republicans MAYBE Supporting Obama

People are having "a fit" over a few Black conservative Republicans mentioning they like the idea of Obama running for president and a few mentioning they are thinking about voting for Obama. Was that article representative of most Black conservatives or Black conservative Republicans or Black Republicans? Who knows? However, the media is playing head games and people went for it. What follows is alot of the comments I've left in other blogs. I'll start with this one and add more later. I'm late and busy and shouldn't even do this:

Comments left on Baldilocks' blog

So, what's the problem with Black conservatives thinking independently? :)

OK, seriously, I laughed at the article and I'm laughing, sort of, at the response only because it is a few Black Republicans/conservatives who are mentioned, not a scientific representative sample. From my view, it's the typical media misrepresentation of Black thought and Black people.

At this point I have to ask, again, why is it not big news when Blacks vote for whites over other Black candidates?

And, if you, Baldi, don't agree with identity politics, why care or even expect heat upon your for the actions of others? (OK, I admit that is utopian in thinking, but I think I make a point here).

Can I state, again, at this point hat all politics is based on "us" vs. "them" which is identity politics at the core?

Another comment on her blog:

I don't believe this to be true. I have never seen the black community unify behind a black conservative in politics.

Tavis Smiley had a Black woman, a Republican, a state legislator, at the "State of the Black Union" event who got most of the Black vote. Her name is Jackie Winters

I this point I'll add to the comment. Prior to the last election, Ken Blackwell received slightly more than 50% of the Black vote. The last election he didn't do as well and it has to do with his rejecting voting applications of people who submitted applications that were available on line. The paper used to print the applications wasn't weighted properly and Blackwell stuck to the letter of the law and rejected a lot of new applications.

Friday Brain Pellets

I don't have much time. My week turned out to be the week from almost hell and I have a busy weekend. So while I have about 30 minutes of free time, let me spout off on things I wanted to say during the week.

Tim Russert

Tim Russert has died at the age of 58 of an apparent heart attack. I agree with what the news pundits talking heads are saying. He was the be prepared interviewer around and he was the fairest interviewer around.

R. Kelly

Of course R. Kelly was found not guilty. What else do you expect? Relatives of the "girl" said it wasn't her. She said it wasn't her although not in the court room. The woman who was the main witness had credibility problems. And he has enough money to buy a great legal team, but for this case, a good enough team would have done and Kelly's legal team was really just good enough.

After this mess first broke, R. Kelly came out with a song where he called himself the Pied Piper. And he has a song now where he mentions honey and it sure seems like he's singing about...

Writ of Habeas Corpus

I don't like the recent Supreme Court decision to allow "enemy combatants" to seek access to U.S. courts to get a hearing on charges against them. On the other hand, it seems like the President and Congress tried to get around the seemingly improper means of indefinite detention of people. In a classic war it could be said that the people would be released when the war is over. But this "war" is different in that it will not end.

Grit And Strength

People are commenting on Hillary's "grit and strength" in running her campaign. Why isn't that sexist? Aren't politicians EXPECTED to display grit and strength in running a campaign?

"Too Black"

For years there has been, for lack of a better word, debate within the Black community concerning "what it means to be Black" or if a person is "Black enough." That concept, "Black enough," has been rightly criticized by some within the Black community. But why is the idea of whites thinking a Black person is "too Black" not something that should be criticized?

This opinion article, "Color Test Where Whites Draw The Line", I think, puts it all out there. I've heard this said and written about before, and on conservative talk radio, I've heard the comment defended. I think it's a comment that can't be honestly defended.

How black is too black?

Millions of African-Americans celebrated Barack Obama’s historic victory, seeing in it a reflection — sudden and shocking — of their own expanded horizons. But whether Mr. Obama captures the White House in November will depend on how he is seen by white Americans. Indeed, some people argue that one of the reasons Mr. Obama was able to defeat Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was that a large number of white voters saw him as “postracial.”

In other words, Mr. Obama was black, but not too black.

But where is the line? Does it change over time? And if it is definable, then how black can Mr. Obama be before he alienates white voters? Or, to pose the question more cynically, how black do the Republicans have to make him to win?

If the last quoted paragraph, the paragraph emphasized, does not make it plain, I don't know what does. This is also something I pointed out here when Michael Steele said, if he faced Mfume in the general election, he would use Mfume's association with the NAACP to say to white voters Steele speaks for all people not some people.

Check this out:

Mr. Buchanan said Mr. Obama’s monolithic support among blacks was likely to stoke such white animosity.

“There’s a sense among some folks that if African-Americans are voting 90 percent for ‘one of us;’ then you’re going to vote for ‘one of us,’ ” he said. When Norm Kagan, a white 62-year-old supporter of Mrs. Clinton’s, was asked in St. Paul, Minn., if white voters in the state would support a black man, he immediately raised the specter of crime, as if the mere mention of blacks brought it to mind. “We’ve all had our problems,” he said. “Every now and then someone gets mugged or robbed. The most economically challenged — which are mostly black — are most often the criminals and not to be trusted.”

Isn't it interesting that conservatives, who claim to be for the individual and say they judge the individual on individual merits, regularly bring up certain group statistics about Blacks to castigate the entire race? Do those same people mention that most Blacks are not involved in crime?

Individuality?

Race Pundits Spewing Crap

Two years ago, The Washington Post did a series of articles on Black Men. I referred to it as the Black Men series and I wrote about it here. The first article covered the results of a poll that was taken for the series. I wrote about it here. At this point, I'm going to provide something that caught my attention in the article that I referenced:

Six in 10 black men said their collective problems owe more to what they have failed to do themselves rather than "what white people have done to blacks." At the same time, half reported they have been treated unfairly by the police, and a clear majority said the economic system is stacked against them.

...

Three in four said they value being successful in a career, more than either white men or black women. Yet majorities also said that black men put too little emphasis on education and too much emphasis on sports and sex.

The poll surveyed 2,864 people and had a sample size of 1,328 Black men. If you believe in polls, those are interesting results, especially given the over sample of Black men. But what does this have to do with race pundits or crap being spewed?

[Obama's] victory demonstrates the main platform of my race writing. The guiding question in everything I have ever written on race is: Why do so many people exaggerate about racism?

...

In any case, to insist that we are hamstrung until every vestige of racism, bias, or inequity is gone indicates a grievous lack of confidence, which I hope any person of any history would reject.

I have been consistent is stating that certain pundits on race deliberately over state what is being said and over state the proportion of people stating it. I've stated before, and showed, where certain pundits, including John McWhorter, have written things that don't stand up to the light of scrutiny. I've also stated that it appears they are as bad as the public pundits they most often criticize and call race baiters.

I find it hard to believe that McWhorter has never read the Black Man series nor has never read the poll. And, again, I state that since McWhorter is a linguist, he knows exactly how "so many people" is going to be read. Yet, if you believe in polls and believe the poll represents the attitude of most Black men, then why does McWhorter not quantify "so many people"? My opinion is that he does not want to do so because, for some reason, he has a vested interest in continuing misinformation about race in the public sphere.

Wednesday Political Brain Pellets

Wednesday political brain pellets:

• I wrote about this a few days ago:
  

  And Ferraro, a staunch Hillary Clinton supporter who sparked a brouhaha earlier this year over whether she made a racially dismissive remark about Barack Obama, apparently is no longer a reliable Democratic vote.

  Ferraro, in the NYT story, terms Obama "terribly sexist." And, as a result, she says she may not be able to cast her ballot for him if, as anticipated, he gains the Democratic presidential nod.

  I wrote then that I thought she did this with Clinton's blessing. I think the audio of this interview of Clinton supports my thought.
• Now, Clinton drops this bomb:
  

  But while Obama trekked through central Florida, Clinton was 200 miles to the south, at the epicenter of the bitter recount battle that ended the 2000 election, summoning memories of the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court decision as she argued for full representation for delegate slates from Florida and Michigan at the Democratic convention.
  
  Florida voters "learned the hard way what happens when your votes aren't counted and the candidate with fewer votes is declared the winner," she told a crowd in Boca Raton in Palm Beach County, a key site in the recount fight between Al Gore and George Bush that ended with a Supreme Court decision halting the recount.

  This is close to dropping the nuclear bomb, but not quite. For Democrats worried that Clinton, Inc. will do anything to win even if it destroys your party, here is your confirmation. Black Democrats who support Obama, you are about to get hosed.
• From what I can tell, the same conservative Republicans who were so vocal in opposition to John McCain are now lining up behind John McCain. If this holds out to be true, they lose all credibility in saying Blacks blindly vote for Democrats. The only way for you to save face is to vote for Barr, the Libertarian candidate. Yes, I find it amusing.
• Republicans joined Democrats in overriding the veto of the pork filled farm bill. Isn't this another reason to vote for Barr?
• Video below the fold

Current Brain Pellets

Silly Season

• Appeasement isn't defined by talking to "bad people" with or without pre-conditions. Appeasement is standing by while "bad people" do "bad things" while hoping they do better. In my opinion, appeasement is how the U.S. deals with China.
• Barry, Michelle is fair game as long as she delivers speeches and goes on the  attack. So stop the whining.
• Cindy McCain is a public person. She needs to release her tax records.
• Anyone counting McCain's flip-flops yet?

Technology

• When I get HD channels over the air, I noticed rain, strong winds, and ice storms affect the HD reception. So this article was no surprise.
  

  What new digital audiences have to fear is the "digital cliff," or the all-or-nothing quality of digital reception. The picture is excellent until the signal weakens or is interrupted, causing the picture to disappear, and it is more sensitive to interference from hills, trees, buildings and bad weather than traditional analog reception. An analog picture degrades gradually, getting more static and snow as signals weaken.

• My Toshiba laptop died after 2 1/2 years of service. Never. Again.

Economics

• My "economic stimulus" check was invested.
• I normally don't play the "what would have happened if" game, but what would have happened if the Fed decided to not flood the market with money? I bet gas prices wouldn't be so dang high. One of the reasons for the high cost of gas is the devalued dollar.

Misc

• Can anyone tell me why a contractor would spend the time, and gas, to come out to your house, inspect what you want to do, give you an estimate, agree to a contract and time frame, and then NOT come out to do the work?

If You Want To Save Marriage

People are rightly upset about the California Supreme Court ruling that it is illegal to disallow gay marriage.

The simple way to resolve this is to get government totally out of marriage. That means no tax privileges for married couples. This means everyone has to go to a lawyer to file papers to provide benefits for spouses.

That solves that problem. Those who want to get married, do so for religious purposes only.

College Drug Bust

I'm late posting about this drug bust, but I'm left to wonder some things.

1. Why doesn't there seem to be more public hand wringing over this? Is it because it's the beginning of the second quarter of dilly season known as the presidential election race?
2. Six fraternities and seventy-five students were involved in the drug bust. Just imagine that happening at an HBCU.
3. By the end of my first weekend at UVa, I found out which fraternities were known as the drug frats. I'll just say that those frats were included in this list.
   

   Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Kappa Theta, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Alpha Mu and Theta Chi fraternities were suspended while the case on their involvement in the drug dealing is heard in court.

   My first year at UVa, I got to see the debauchery known as Easters. This article is WRONG when they state the mud bowl was ended at this time. And there was more than drinking going on. In fact, in 1986 or 1987, there was a drug bust at UVa that caused running back Barry Word to go to jail. But they still just scratched the surface.
4. I wonder what would happen if the police used resources to investigate drug use at major universities and colleges across the United States. Would there then be an outcry for "treatment" vs. "punishment"? Or, would it "just happen" with the current tweekers, i.e. meth users, getting treatment more so than jail time? (Read this, and this).
5. Does it matter that meth users are mainly white?

Obama And Polls

I don't understand how polls show that people are uncomfortable with Obama's association with Wright, but that doesn't affect their support of Obama.

No, let me rephrase.

I don't understand how polls show that white people are uncomfortable with Obama's association with Wright, but that doesn't affect their support of Obama. I think that's the "Bradley Effect" happening.

I could be wrong but I think Obama loses both races on Tuesday.

Spouting Off On: "The Black Church"

The Black church isn't defined by Jeremiah Wright. No, the Black church is NOT Jeremiah Wright. That's what I want to say. I've been in many Black churches and I've never been in a church where a pastor has said the things that is being mostly looped and played as Wright's only pulpit statements.

Today I felt compelled to call into a radio show to strongly disagree with the guest who was saying Wright's comments are something that are regularly said from the pulpits of most Black churches across the country. NO! That's just not true. I was compelled to call in because I've heard enough false comments made about Black churches and I've had my fill of it.

I've written before that the idea that most Black churches have Democrats come into their churches and making comments from the pulpits on Sunday's close to elections isn't true. Yes, they do go into selected churches, but those churches are the overwhelming MINORITY of churches. From my experiences, I guess that politicians show up in less than 5% of Black churches. When I've challenged people, AND PUNDITS WITH A WRITTEN AUDIENCE to prove me wrong, I've always been met by silence. I ask them to find out how many Black churches are in a major city and then find out how many of those churches have politicians show up. But to date, no one has taken up that offer.

Wright saying that criticism of him is criticizing the Black church, SHOULD provoke the media to examine "what the Black church" is, but they won't do that because it destroys the model they rely on during the election cycle and the "demonstration" cycle. This goes for the mainstream and conservative media.

And, so far, I haven't heard the mainstream or conservative media mention why Sunday is the most segregated day in America. Rev. Fred Price addressed it and people like Jesse Lee Peterson went after him for speaking the truth. Why does the AME church exist? Why did the Southern Baptist Convention make a resolution on racial conciliation? And why does Bishop Harry Jackson and other preachers have to develop something called the reconciliation referendum?

How many other people are asking the questions I'm asking?

No Home Training

A lot of what is going wrong in some Black communities is the result of poor or no home training. But it has always been my contention that most parents, including single parents, if they knew better, would do better. You will always have your exceptions, but most would do better if they knew better. One question to ask is, "Why don't they know better?" But I think a more important question to ask is, "How do we get them to learn to DO better?"

Some people are saying since the parents aren't doing their job, it's up to the schools to "socialize" -- home train -- the children. But I maintain that if you are in an area were socialization is a problem, then socialization in the school is a problem, which means I tend to think that you can't teach socialization in the school because the atmosphere doesn't allow it. (Of course, if you suspend and/or expel the problem students, then the atmosphere would be more hospitable).

So, the answer has to be non-government groups that can teach parents to be better parents and/or socialize the children who aren't being socialized properly.

If we leave it up to non-government groups, then the issue is getting the parents to attend programs that will attempt to teach them to be better parents. Or the problem is getting the children into the socialization programs.

Of course, if someone reports the parents or the children get into trouble, the court system can then "order" the parents or children to attend the parenting and socialization programs.

Personally, I think the government putting its nose in parenting of children has not helped the situation at all. Children know that if their parents whup them, they can call "child protective services" and get the  parents in trouble.

On a personal level, family, friends, and I have reached out one on one to people we know who have not been parenting properly to suggest ways they could be better. But we can't be there 24/7/365.

More later

When The Olympics Are Over

When the Olympics are over, I think we are going to find out that people on the committee to select which country would get the Olympics, were bribed. I'm not saying all of them, but enough of them to make a difference.

I didn't understand the selection at the time and I really don't understand it now.

Notes On The News

Passing comments on news and opinion pieces of the past few days.

Huckabee on Wright

I've received a few emails about this, and I've seen this a few places on the web. Mike Huckabee goes out on a limb:

And one other thing I think we've gotta remember. As easy as it is for those of us who are white, to look back and say "That's a terrible statement!"...I grew up in a very segregated south. And I think that you have to cut some slack -- and I'm gonna be probably the only Conservative in America who's gonna say something like this, but I'm just tellin' you -- we've gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told "you have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can't sit out there with everyone else. There's a separate waiting room in the doctor's office. Here's where you sit on the bus..." And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.

I'm stunned.

Sports

Bye-Bye Dookies!!!!!

Second-seeded Duke's quest for a fourth national championship ended abruptly in the second round when West Virginia used an astonishing rally to shock the Blue Devils 73-67 in the West Region on Saturday.

I shall forever despise Duke and their fans because of the racist comments directed towards Patrick Ewing, Sr. when Georgetown played Duke at Duke.

It's About History, If You Are A Terrorist

The next time some jack ass pundit says Blacks should move from areas where they are not wanted, or someone tells you the Confederate Flag isn't about hate, it's about heritage or history, tell them to kiss your a**, and if you're Black, tell them to kiss your BLACK a**, with emphasis appropriately placed where it belongs.

Deana Bryant allowed her 16-year-old son to wear a shirt emblazoned with the flag to school one day last week in open defiance of the ban. Speaking from behind the grocery counter where she works, Bryant said the flag is not about racism.

"It's his heritage," she said, her blue eyes flashing.

The same day, Lakeal Ellis, a nurse, kept her three daughters home from Fort Hill High School. Shaken by the escalating tension, they packed their clothes. The African American family came here a little more than a year ago from the District hoping to find better schools and a quieter life.

The girls were getting good grades at the high school. But after enduring racial slurs and harassment, sometimes at the hands of youths with Confederate flags, the Ellis family decided to give up and return to the District.

"Everything is over with Cumberland," Ellis said. "It's not okay for my kids."

I've been there. The heritage of Cumberland also includes incest. I'm not kidding. Look at where it is located.

Throwing Family Under The Bus

Do you remember who made this comment?

"She gets mad when the mailman is late with her welfare check. That's how dependent she is."

Do you remember the "she" is the person's sister?

So, now people the people who said not one word about the "mailman" comment are mad about Obama's comment about his grandmother?

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother -- a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

Oh, I guess I should mention Clarence Thomas made the comment about his sister. Here's more information about that one.

Social Justice

I have a few questions:

1. What is "social justice"?
2. Is there a consensus on the definition of social justice?
3. Why should a church seek to address issues of social justice?
4. Why should a church NOT seek to address issues of social justice?
5. Is HIV/AIDS a social justice issue?
6. Is abortion a social justice issue?
7. Is a married couples ministry a social justice issue?
8. Is a singles ministry a social justice issue?
9. Is n education ministry a social justice issue?

Whenever I hear "social justice" in connection to churches, it's always in connection to Black churches and a brother needs to know.

I'm Just Sayin

• Mocha Mom meetings should be named The Germ Exchange.
• A large proportion of Black voters voted for Jesse Jackson, Sr. when he ran for president. A large proportion of Black voters DIDN'T vote for Al Sharpton when he ran for president. A large percentage of Black voters are voting for Obama in his run for president. Think about that when someone says Blacks always vote for Black candidates.
• Weather forecasters in the mid-Atlantic region can't forecast worth a damn!
• So, many "Black leaders" backed Hillary Clinton but "the people" backed Obama. Who says "Black leaders" "control" Black folks?

Brain Pellet Saturday Evening

• You read a lot of bullet points in this site because I like to get straight to the point and I think bullet points help me do that.
• Cutting taxes does help the economy grow. The problem is, our congress-critters refuse to cut spending.
• If conservatives who were so dead set against McCain turn around and support him, for any reason, prove that it isn't only Blacks who support Democrats no matter what.
• I communicate most with Miss D.S. (my daughter) using text messages via cell phone. She's either in school (yea!) or working during the day, which seems to be when she wants to contact me the most. I'm going to have to upgrade my plan because of it.
• Last week I get a text message from Miss D.S. asking me what was the name of the cat that would say, "Exit, stage left." So, I replied "Snagglepuss." I laughed. I figured she was in another "old school" vs. "new school" conversation with her co-workers. She came buy said that the co-workers were "picking" on her again and the topic this time was cartoons. She remembered the cartoon but not the name of the mountain lion. (I had to correct her from saying "cat."). She told me she remembered us looking at the cartoon and my mimicking Snagglepuss. It's interesting what gets remembered.
• There was another conversation with Miss D.S. that, again, let's me know she's listening even if she doesn't take my suggestions.
• I'm in a rough spot right now. We could get a decent sized home, with the latest in interior design, IF we buy in PG County, Maryland. But the county piggyback tax is 60% when the piggyback tax for most other counties in Maryland is 50%. The piggyback tax is a percentage of the state tax that is added on to your tax, which will be given to the county. (If I lived in PG county, and my state tax was $1000, my total tax bite would be $1600, with the $600 going to PG county). The problem is, the school system stinks. Although we plan on sending D.S. 2.0 to a private school, what happens if we can't go by that plan and have to send him to public school? Especially since all county public school systems are concentrating more on the NCLB tests vs. really teaching.

Comments R Us: Fallout From Obama vs Smiley

Cobb wrote this in response to the "battle" between B. Obama and T. Smiley. Go there to read the whole thing. I think it's unfair to excerpt a piece of it.

In response, I wrote this (with my edits):

Obama said he couldn't take the time but his wife could fill his spot and Tavis declined that offer.

This is something [that] Blacks from the Right are delighting in because of the row about the Black Right being punks and never showing up when invited, now the shoe is on the other foot. But the Black Right is, mostly, deliberately missing the point.

The Black Right claims they want the Black masses to hold politicians accountable and Smiley is doing just that [ by holding Obama accountable to show up ].

It's like when the Black Right says Jackson, Sr, Sharpton, the NAACP, etc "controls the minds" of the Black community but publicly ignores when the same Black community slams Jackson, Sr, Sharpton, the NAACP, etc.

Just look at the split in support for Clinton and Obama. The Black Right likes to point it out but won't go that extra step and ask, "Does OR DID the so-called Black leader EVER lead or determine how Black America thinks or acts?"

No, the Black Right won't do that because then the answer would force people to look behind THEIR curtain.

We all know so-called Black leaders don't determine what Black America does or thinks. But too many people from the left and right need to "perpetrate the fraud" for selfish reasons.

That is what I wrote, but I have to add more.

If Race Doesn't Matter

If race doesn't matter, why are white pundits saying Obama is where he is because he is Black and because he's not "Black like Jesse Jackson, Sr. or Al Sharpton"?

If race didn't matter, the linkage to Sharpton or Jackson, Sr, wouldn't even be a factor or non-factor.

KnowwhaddImean?

Brain Spew Sunday: Stuff

The pun is intended. ;-)

OK, here's my brain spew "stuff":

• Microsoft trying to buy Yahoo was an admission of defeat for Microsoft.  Yahoo turned it down anyway, and that may not be the best thing for them, but it shows tenacity or their part.
• I've had decent email changes with two public and published Black conservatives. Both exchanges were nice. One can't put a finger on how I can be categorized and that's the best thing. The other wrote something that, I felt and showed, was not accurate, but the underlying point was valid. I'll concede the latter.
• How in the &$*^)*!@%$# could the Washington football team hire assistant coaches without hiring a head coach first? Then, in a stroke of insanity, they promote one of the assistant coaches to the head coach position. Dan Synder must be trying to emulate, for the worst, the ownership of the Orioles.
• Money market rates, down. Home mortgage rates, if you can get them, down. Home prices, down. Gasoline prices, falling. Credit card rates? UP.
• Home prices are down, but the inventory of homes are up. This includes the number of homes being offered for rental. This means rental rates are down which means, right now, I can't buy an investment property, in my area, at a price where I can rent it out to cover a mortgage.
• Alicia Keyes Is FOINE.

Brain Spew Sunday: Comedy

I was talking with my daughter yesterday, and she mentioned someone who had no sense of humor. She then said "even I" have a sense of humor, it's just hard to categorize. She said it's "different" and then she said it's "dry." When I told Mrs. D.S., she laughed and said her mother taught her how to be polite.
So, I know that was a slam, but that leads me to this post.

Best comedy routine, EVER: "Who's On First" by Abbott and Costello.

Best comedy movie, EVER: "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World". Spencer Tracy was the perfect straight man for everyone else in this movie: Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Jonathan Winters, Jim Backus, etc. Straight up hil-ar-ri-us!

Brain Spew Sunday: Remove From The Gene Pool

This is about people who have done some horrible things to kids. All of this is behind the fold because I find it depressing. All I will say right now is, although I am against the death penalty, all of the people who did this should be immediately removed from the gene pool.