DarkStar Spouts Off

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When This Group Is This Successful, The System Needs Repair

When this organization has to exist, and is successful in its efforts while in existence, then the system it is monitoring is in need of serious repair.

The need for repair is the problem for a society that has as one of it's foundations, equal justice under the law. Everyone knows that money and fame can stack the system in your favor. Many people believe that racial attitudes play a factor.

A 2000 study co-sponsored by the Justice Department tells us that, of people who've never done time in juvenile facilities, a black drug defendant is 48 times more likely to be jailed than a white one with the same record.

Successes of the organization like this one, should shake the foundation of the justice seem to the core. But, instead, the system moves on and people knowingly support a system that is broken.

I don't understand people who say their faith drives them to be against abortion because abortion ends an innocent life but then they turn around and support the death penalty, even when presented with information like this. Look at the last chart on the page: 101 wrongful convictions based on mistaken identification.

How can the system of the death penalty be supported by the same people who claim they believe in the sanctity of life? There is no doubt that wrongful convictions are made. Why is there no doubt that no one who was innocent of the crime for which they have been convicted, has been executed by the state? That is just an inconsistency that I am unable to resolve.

What does this mean for the system? That is the real problem. The "powers that be" don't want to face that question, otherwise a foundation of our nation will be weakened.

I can't support the death penalty because it is absolute. If there is a mistake, you cannot bring back the life of the person killed by the state.

Lady Tee

Teena Marie's new CD, Sapphire, is a decent CD. If you were to think that her previous release was her first release, and this were her sophomore release, you could say she falls to the sophomore jinx.

But since she has been around for so long, I won't be stupid enough to write something like that. ;-)

This CD has a different vibe to it than the previous release.

The song, "Ohh Wee" is getting some airplay now, but in my opinion, it's not the best cut. Because my bias lies in the upbeat cuts, I like the cut, "Make It Hot".

The vibe is more love making and mellow. Don't get me wrong, it's a decent CD, just not as good as La Dona.

The CD starts off with two duets with Smokey Robinson. The first is 2 minutes and change long, the second is longer. That is the better of the two.

I give it a 7 out of 10. For the current price, it's a no brainer. Get it.

Nagin Won

Well, to my surprise,  Ray Nagin won:

Nagin won with 52.3 percent, or 59,460 votes, to Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu's 47.7 percent, or 54,131 votes. While the vote was split largely along racial lines, Nagin got enough of a crossover in predominantly white districts to make the difference. He also won a slim majority of absentee and fax votes cast by evacuees scattered across the country.

That's all for now. I'm going to wait until Monday or Tuesday to say the rest of what I have to say.

Thoughts of the Past Few Days

Here are some random thoughts:

• The past 2 weeks I have shaken the hands of a lot of people. Its seems that the women give more manly handshakes then the men.
• Poor Customer Service Is The Norm: I have been trying to get work done on my home for over the past 2 months. I stopped counting how many times people have made appointments to only not show up.
• About 10 months ago, the Scott's Lawn Service company ruined my lawn. I've been trying to get them to repair my lawn ever since. I have no choice left but to sue them. I'm going to take 2 days off to repair my lawn, and the neighbor's lawn  which they damaged, myself.
• DirecTv rocks except during heavy thunderstorms. During that time, the reception goes out.
• I just saw someone who is claiming to be the family spokesperson for the woman who is accusing the Duke lacrosse players of rape. The person is on the big side and a drag queen.
• This next one is for my sistahs out there. Especially sistahs with some junk in the trunk: low waist and no waist pants make you look like you have a loaded dirty diaper. Chances are if you are blessed with a nice backside, you have hips. Please, for all that is good taste, don't try to squeeze into those things. Let the no-waisted waifs have that one.
• This next one is for women in general. If you have some cushion around the stomach, please remember this: you can't wear shirts that show the stomach.
• A DarkStar truism: politicians at the national level are, at best, amoral.
• Someone did a search for "E*Trade" and got to my blog. So I looked at the search results and look at this post about eFraud and E*Trade's non-response.

Music: Kirk Franklin; Lady T

Kirk Franklin

Kirk Franklin's latest CD, Hero, is good. It is just flat out good.

The CD has 2 feels to it: one is more up tempo and current, the second is more church traditional. There are traditional gospel songs that make me feel good and get me to sing, but most of them, from my Baptist background, seem like funeral parlor music. For the most part, those categories of gospel music doesn't seem to speak to me.

The up tempo and current songs, now they straight up make me want to dance. I've written before that he's a keeper of the funk and those songs are proof of what I'm saying. After a few listens, then I start to listen to WHAT is being said and I think that's the point to that style of music.

"Intro" and "Outro" are short and to the point. "Outro" is serious. "Intro"... What can I say. If you don't feel it...

"Could've Been" with Tye Tribbett and J. Moss is straight up CRANKIN'! I mean it is STRAIGHT FUNK! OH, but when you finally listen to the words, it's all right there.

"Imagine Me" gets me.

"Looking for You" is what is being played on the radio. It's good.

Look, it's a good CD. I'll give it an 8 out of 10.
Get it and rejoice.

 

Spouting Off On Immigration

George Bush Spoke Spanish When Campaigning

George Bush spoke Spanish at some campaign stops during his first run for President. Considering this, should his administrations inactivity on immigration from "The South" be any surprise? For this reason, is it hard to believe that border agents are giving information to Mexican authorities about the efforts of citizens who want to control the border?

Mexico Should Be Considered To Be A Threat

Mexico should be considered to be a threat to the United States:

• Because of its "economic" policies and long standing social issues, Mexico's economy is a wreck. Mexico is purposely "exporting" its economic failures to the United States. If you have been reading the right news outlets, you know that Mexico created maps for people who are trying to illegally cross the border.
• Mexico is exporting it's economic failures to help keep it's country stable. What isn't getting much, if any, press in the United States is the "unrest" and "protests" that are happening in Mexico because of its failed economy. Some of this is ethnic based.
• People dressed in uniforms of the Mexican army and in military vehicles, have been taped as overseeing people crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S. There have also been reports of gunfire exchange between them and U.S. border patrol.
• Mexico said Tuesday that it would file lawsuits in U.S. courts if National Guard troops on the border become directly involved in detaining migrants.

Just THINK about that one. Let it marinade.

More later...

Dems and Repubs Don't Want to Piss Off Latinos

Why Elijah Cummings and the CBC are Selling Out Blacks

Now THIS Is GANSTA!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, THIS is the definition of gansta!

Eran Reshef had an idea in the battle against spam e-mail that seemed to be working: he fought spam with spam. Today, he'll give up the fight.

Reshef's Silicon Valley company, Blue Security Inc., simply asked the spammers to stop sending junk e-mail to his clients. But because those sort of requests tend to be ignored, Blue Security took them to a new level: it bombarded the spammers with requests from all 522,000 of its customers at the same time.

That led to a flood of Internet traffic so heavy that it disrupted the spammers' ability to send e-mails to other victims -- a crippling effect that caused a handful of known spammers to comply with the requests.

Then, earlier this month, a Russia-based spammer counterattacked, Reshef said. Using tens of thousands of hijacked computers, the spammer flooded Blue Security with so much Internet traffic that it blocked legitimate visitors from going to Bluesecurity.com, as well as to other Web sites. The spammer also sent another message: Cease operations or Blue Security customers will soon find themselves targeted with virus-filled attacks.

Today, Reshef will wave a virtual white flag and surrender. The company will shut down this morning and its Web site will display a message informing its customers about the closure.

"The Russians"  hijacked computers, sent the hijacked computers  commands to connect to Blue Security computers at such a pace that it created a denial of service to the company's systems. The translation is, earlier, they sent viruses to computers which were unpatched or unprotected, infected the computers, and turned those computers into bad guys at their will.

Think about this for a moment.

"The Russians" decide to get more money and contact a company like E*Trade, who does most of its business via the Internet. They threaten the company with an attack unless they provide money and or services. To show they are not playing and that it is possible, they initiate a short DoS attack on E*Trade. What do you think E*Trade would do?

Here is the serious part. What makes anyone think the scenario has not already happened?

There are plenty of companies that have had serious IT problems because of virus attacks, untargeted and targeted. Personally, I know of 3 major technical companies whose web presence was shutdown because of  untargeted and targeted attacks. It was interesting seeing an employee log into the company employee portal, only to see graphic porn images stream all over the computer.

People, what "The Russians" did was straight up gansta. Blue Security thought they were bad. "The Russians" showed what BAD is.

Google Toolkit

From The Server Side:

Google Web Toolkit (GWT)

is a Java software development framework for writing AJAX applications like Google Maps and Gmail.

JavaScript's lack of modularity makes sharing, testing, and reusing AJAX components difficult and fragile. GWT claims to avoid this while offering users the same dynamic, standards-compliant experience. You write your front end in the Java programming language, and the GWT compiler converts your Java classes to browser-compliant JavaScript and HTML.

I find this interesting and a good thing.

More Barry Bonds

You can't tell me that the situation with Barry Bonds is not out of control

.

The moment that had tongues wagging came in the fifth. The Giants were leading 11-2 and Bonds led off.

Springer's first pitch was behind Bonds, and home-plate umpire Joe West immediately issued warnings to both teams. As Houston manager Phil Garner argued, Bonds calmly picked up the ball. Springer threw four more inside pitches. The 2-0 pitch hit the knob of Bonds bat and the 3-1 hit him in the shoulder just below his head.

West ejected Springer, who walked off to a standing ovation from the 35,286 fans and leers from the visiting dugout, where the Giants were trying to figure out why Bonds became a target.

Barry, make sure you tell them all to kiss every bit of your...

If I Were Barry Bonds

If I were Barry Bonds, I would tie Babe Ruth's record and then break it.
At the end of the game where I broke Ruth's record, I would call a press conference and say:

Ladies and gentlemen, I've exceeded the home run record of one of the most revered men in baseball; Babe Ruth. It's a humbling experience, a thrill, and a mental challenge to have obtained such a feat. So, today, I'm retiring from baseball.

To those fans who cheered me on, I say thank you.

To those fans and sports writers who jeered me and who don't like me, it doesn't matter because I bettered one of Babe Ruth's accomplishments. So, to you I'll behave in the way you say I am: arrogant and a son-of-a-b****.

You all can kiss my Black a**!

Then I'd flip them off and head out of the stadium for good.

And I don't even care about baseball anymore.

Hmmmm....

Wasn't there an uproar recently when it was publicized that private companies were getting cellular telephone company call records and were selling them to the public?

Weren't a few of them forced to shut down by the government?

Shelby Steele; The Race Man of the Moment

An article by Abigail Thernstrom concerning Shelby Steele's "white guilt" analysis caught my eye today.

The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, it might seem, was about sex and the Oval Office. In fact, race was the real story, Steele argues in his stunning new book, White Guilt. “Race had dramatically changed the terms by which political power is won and held.” Race, not sex, “had become the primary focus of America’s moral seriousness.” It is our racial history that has “effectively renormed American culture around social morality.” Clinton’s generation “invented the practice of using social morality as a license to disregard individual morality.” What came to count was a commitment, first and foremost, to racial equality, not whom you slept with.

This quote by Thernstrom is taken out of context so maybe that explains why it makes no damn sense to me.

How was Clinton's mess not about sex nor lying about sex, but race?

Thernstrom goes on to write about a Washington Post writer who writes on fashion:

[Robin] Givhan (who is also black) is Shelby Steele at 22: a racial exhibitionist who revels in making clear her freedom to indulge in the effrontery that arrogantly insults conventional (white) America.

And of course much of her white readership responds by asking for more. Legitimizing black anger undoubtedly makes them feel racially cleansed.

The condensed version of the story is the writer, Givhan, has used her articles to do more than just write about who is wearing what and how it was worn. She has made social and political commentary in her some of her articles. However, what Thernstrom doesn't tell the readers is, Givhan's race was unknown to the readers until her picture appeared in the Post recently. Most importantly, what Thernstrom doesn't tell the readers is Givhan has received a LOT of criticism for some of her articles.

Thernstrom is just flat out wrong.

Here is a quote I just love with all of my heart:

A new black identity emerged defined by group victimization.

This is an interesting quote from Thernstrom, who has argued, and has faced CONSERVATIVE CRITICISM for arguing, that Blacks have advanced at a rapid pace sine the Civil Rights Act.

Steele is America’s racial therapist who attempts to lay bare the crippled emotional state of whites in positions of power who do bad by attempting to do good.

Sorry, I don't need a therapist who feels guilt, "Black guilt," over how a minority of Katrina victims handled themselves.

Here is another article that came to my attention today.

Dr. Helen Smith writes:

Today's political left, according to Steele, has shifted from the old left approach of individual freedom, principles and responsibility, to the new left of dissociation. This new dissociated left has turned against democratic principles and instead engages in a victim mentality for blacks that keeps them on the plantation. The left's deal is that they will keep throwing out a few bones like affirmative action, as long as blacks will allow themselves to be reduced to their race and the left can take moral authority for "helping" them. As Steele points out, this is a deal with the devil. It results in the impotence of the left in solving social problems and less freedom and autonomy for blacks. How can social problems be solved by telling people that they remain victims because of their race (or gender, for that matter?)

This garbage about Blacks embracing victimhood seems to fly in the face of the recent news of a growing number of Black businesses, and flies in the face of the growing number of Blacks attending college, and flies in the face of the decreasing number of Blacks at or below the poverty level, just to name a few things.

So much garbage, so little time.

White Guilt, II

A few months ago, I saw Shelby Steele on a televised conference on CSPAN, that was moderated by Jesse Lee Peterson.

While watching that conference, I noticed, and noted here, that Steele said that he felt shame when looking at the Katrina victims. My take on it at the time was that he was feeling racial shame; shame of being, 1/2 Black. This needs to be remembered throughout what I have to write concerning Steele's article on "White Guilt and the Western Past."

Steele writes:

Certainly since Vietnam, America has increasingly practiced a policy of minimalism and restraint in war. And now this unacknowledged policy, which always makes a space for the enemy, has us in another long and rather passionless war against a weak enemy.

Why this new minimalism in war?

It began, I believe, in a late-20th-century event that transformed the world more profoundly than the collapse of communism: the world-wide collapse of white supremacy as a source of moral authority, political legitimacy and even sovereignty. This idea had organized the entire world, divided up its resources, imposed the nation-state system across the globe, and delivered the majority of the world's population into servitude and oppression. After World War II, revolutions across the globe, from India to Algeria and from Indonesia to the American civil rights revolution, defeated the authority inherent in white supremacy, if not the idea itself. And this defeat exacted a price: the West was left stigmatized by its sins. Today, the white West--like Germany after the Nazi defeat--lives in a kind of secular penitence in which the slightest echo of past sins brings down withering condemnation. There is now a cloud over white skin where there once was unquestioned authority.

What is quoted above, I find to be intellectually misleading, if not straight out dishonest.

During Vietnam, there was an ever increasing use of force to battle the Viet Cong. I distinctly remember seeing news footage of areas of the Vietnam forest being Napalmed and expansive areas of the country being carpet bombed in order to defeat our enemy. Unfortunately for the Vietnamese and the U.S., we "lost" that war.

As a result, the psyche of the U.S. was damaged and it has not fully recovered from that "defeat."

People who remember that war, and supported military action in Afghanistan and Iraq, stated that we had to fight those battles with the will to win and the attitude that we will win. This was stated because of a belief that the U.S. has become afraid to go to war because of the memory of a  "loss" in  Vietnam.

Steele's use of "white guilt" in the context is intellectually dishonest and really makes no sense.

In the next paragraph Steele writes:

I call this white guilt not because it is a guilt of conscience but because people stigmatized with moral crimes--here racism and imperialism--lack moral authority and so act guiltily whether they feel guilt or not.

Steele could use "guilt of conscience" or "imperialism guilt" or "moral guilt" or some other term that is more fitting, but instead he chooses white guilt because it fits neatly into his agenda of "absolving whites of their sins" which he believes is necessary for racial healing.

In the first quote I provided, it needs to be noted that Steele mentions the guilt on Germany because of the Nazi crimes.

If I remember my history correctly, that "guilt" was the result of The Alliance forcing German citizens to see the death camps and what really happened there since many Germans had no idea of what inhumanity happened.

But, that has NOTHING to do with how the U.S. is fighting the War on Terrorism. The WOT is being fought with the memory of Vietnam loss, not guilt of any kind.

In Iraq, America is fighting as much for the legitimacy of its war effort as for victory in war. In fact, legitimacy may be the more important goal. If a military victory makes us look like an imperialist nation bent on occupying and raping the resources of a poor brown nation, then victory would mean less because it would have no legitimacy.

If the U.S. were really worried about looking like an imperialist nation, and if there were guilt about being seen as such, there are immediate and striking things the U.S. could do to dispel that notion. The U.S. could release all claim on the U.S. possessions of:

• American Samoa;
• Guam;
• Northern Mariana Islands;
• Puerto Rico; and
• the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Going past that, part of the problem with the perception of U.S. citizens of the action in Iraq is because of the lack of communication by the Bush administration. I have written a few times that the Bush administration is terrible at communicating and it has been left up to conservative commentators to defend the actions of the Bush administration.

Look at the links provided on those countries. The links that point to the CIA Fact Book gives the racial composition of the countries. Where is the "white guilt" or "imperialist guilt" over the U.S. still having control of those countries?

In my opinion, if Steele were really concerned about the minimalism in fighting the war vs. spewing stuff to help sell his book, he would have mentioned how the U.S. fought a minimalist war in the Balkans, a white European area.

Now, please remember what I wrote in the opening paragraph: Steele said that he felt shame when looking at the Katrina victims. My take on it at the time was that he was feeling racial shame; shame of being, 1/2 Black.

Next up, Abigail Thernstrom.

Let's Talk About Sex

Let's look at some recent news on sexuality of teenagers.

Virginity Pledges

Adolescents who sign a "virginity pledge" and then go on to have premarital sex are likely to disavow having signed such a pledge, according to an analysis of survey data by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researcher Janet Rosenbaum published in the advance online edition of the American Journal of Public Health's June 2006 issue. Conversely, adolescents who have had premarital sex and then decide to make a virginity pledge are likely to misreport their earlier sexual history. This misreporting of sexual experience will make it difficult to accurately assess virginity pledges' effects on early sexual intercourse, according to the author.

Moreover, the fact that the majority of adolescents recanted their vows within a year may suggest that the virginity pledge programs have a high drop-out rate and that adolescents do not make a strong affiliation with the pledge, said the author.

Rosenbaum, a doctoral student in health policy at HSPH, examined data from 13,568 adolescents who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a survey sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the only large national study of its kind that has asked questions about virginity pledges, defined as "a public or written pledge to remain a virgin until marriage."

Oral and anal sex increasing among teenagers

During the past decade, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of teenagers and young adults engaging in oral sex and, less commonly, having anal intercourse, according to data from STD clinics in Baltimore, Maryland.

The finding is not all that surprising, Dr. Emily Erbelding from Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore told Reuters Health.

She explained that "a few national surveys conducted recently have suggested that oral sex may be a behavior that teenagers are increasingly participating in. For example, in the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, most teenagers reported having oral sex and many had not had intercourse."

She presented the current study findings Tuesday in Jacksonville, Florida at the 2006 National STD Prevention Conference sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ring Tones

My default ring tone is "Play that Funky Music".

When my daughter calls me from her cell phone, it rings "She's Strange".

When my wife calls me from her cell phone, it rings "Candy".

That is all.

Stupidity Meet Politics

This post is subtitled, "Don't Bite the Hand That Feeds You."

Check out this story:

[Alphonso] Jackson, a former president and CEO of the Dallas Housing Authority, was among the featured speakers at a forum sponsored by the Real Estate Executive Council, a national minority real estate consortium.

After discussing the huge strides the agency has made in doing business with minority-owned companies, Jackson closed with a cautionary tale, relaying a conversation he had with a prospective advertising contractor.

"He had made every effort to get a contract with HUD for 10 years," Jackson said of the prospective contractor. "He made a heck of a proposal and was on the (General Services Administration) list, so we selected him. He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something ... he said, 'I have a problem with your president.'

"I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I don't like President Bush.' I thought to myself, 'Brother, you have a disconnect -- the president is elected, I was selected. You wouldn't be getting the contract unless I was sitting here. If you have a problem with the president, don't tell the secretary.'

"He didn't get the contract," Jackson continued. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe."

I don't understand why a contractor, who spent that much time trying to get a contract, would not have the basic intelligence to keep his political views to himself.

That is, if this story is true.

If the story is true, what was done is probably illegal.

But, here's something interesting that was at the end of the article:

Under Jackson's leadership, HUD has gone from close to the bottom to first among the larger agencies doing business with minority-owned companies.

In 2005, 16% of HUD contracts, or about $167 million worth of work, went to black-owned businesses. Hispanic-owned businesses received 7%, or $71 million. That combined 23% is up from 6% in 2000, the year before Jackson was named deputy secretary of the agency.

Despite getting just 8% and 11% of the African-American vote nationally in his two presidential wins, Jackson said President Bush is committed to creating prosperity for minority business owners.

Hat Tip: P6.

Shame

My church has an unwed mother ministry where they team with the YWCA to provide counseling and support to unwed mothers. Is this type of effort "enabling" out of wedlock child births? I ask this question because of the stated need to bring back shame to out of wedlock births.

In theory, I agree with the statement, but in practice, how is this done?

One of the things the ministry does is to provide items for baby showers. Should this be done? Why or why not?

Part of the shame process is making the person who broke the rules an outcast. Should a grandmother or grandfather turn their backs on their daughter and grandchild?

How are the fathers of the children shamed?

If the fathers are teenagers, do you kick them out of the house?
Force them to quit school and get a job?

How do you "force" the parents to get married or do you even attempt to "force" the children to get married?

For example, a new grandmother is begging and pleading with her daughter to marry the father of the newborn. However, others in the family say the issue should not be forced because the father is "no good" and the situation would probably be made worse if the mother and father got married.

I've got questions and no answers.

This, of course, is after the fact that the woman is pregnant.

Net Neutrality

Be afraid... Be very, very, afraid....

Verizon offers rebuttal on net neutrality

Efforts in the U.S. Congress to prohibit broadband providers from impairing or favoring some network traffic will "shut the door" to new services, a Verizon Communications official said Tuesday.

Current congressional attempts to write a so-called net neutrality provision into law would stop broadband network operators from offering VPNs (virtual private networks) to online gaming vendors looking to improve connectivity or hospitals launching home health-monitoring services over IP (Internet Protocol), said Tom Tauke, Verizon's executive vice president of public affairs, policy, and communications.

Tauke's concerns that Verizon could no longer offer VPNs are "ridiculous," said Art Brodsky, a spokesman for Public Knowledge, an online rights advocacy group.

"The point is that there has to be room for a company other than Verizon's favored health-monitoring partner to offer the service as well," Brodsky said in an e-mail.

Tauke's speech -- at a broadband policy summit sponsored by Pike & Fischer, a research and publishing company -- was a focused rebuttal to consumer groups and e-commerce firms calling for a net neutrality provision to be included in telecommunications reform legislation now being debated in Congress.

[ Update ]

Plan and simple, Verizon and the other telephone companies want to charge based on the ISDN model, not the DSL model. Based on the amount of money the telcos are putting into lobbying efforts, I fear they will get what they want, and then maim the Internet revolution to get paid their five pounds of flesh.

And the telcos know that they will get it because the public has no control over the congress-critters and they know the public is, for the most part, ignorant of what is going on.

Our Missing Babies

"Our Missing Babies"

Go to the link and check it out.

Men United For A Better Philadelphia

Men United for a Better Philadelphia (MUBP) is a movement comprised of a group of activists from across the city focused on reducing violence in the City of Philadelphia. Initially motivated by the alarming number of drug-related homicides, the organization will focus as its core mission re-educating men through positive activities. This will be done through a network of support services for men focused on attracting young men away from the type of lifestyles associated with criminal activity.

MUBP believes men must take back the streets and organize at the grass roots level to launch a meaningful attack on negative attitudes that are contributed to the destruction of families and neighborhoods.

Through the group’s work, MUBP is able to identify the needs of men in the community and develop the model to fill in the gaps in services coming to men. The biggest gap identified was the need for a comprehensive plan or model to provide services to men that would build self-esteem, increase positive hopes of the future and decrease the negative perceptions that men sometimes have of themselves

Thoughts

Some thoughts:

• First there was moaning about Blacks not starting "enough" businesses. Now with the economic data showing that Blacks are starting businesses at rates that out pace other "groups," the moaning is that most of the Black businesses have only one employee. Well, give me a break! How many businesses start out with hundreds of employees?
• Over at the Conservative Brotherhood, I asked a simple question: What are ten strengths of the Black community? One of the replies:

10 strengths in my thinking means what comparative advantage do we have as a people. I would say none.

40 years ago I would have said Black Churches, English Speaking, respected and desire for education, community child raising (ie neighboor down the street would put you in place if you act up), all of these things are gone.

I think all we have left is not needing suntan lotion.

I've asked this or a similar question on forums all over the Internet and I am now not surprised that there are few, if any, replies and that most are negative. What does that say?

• On this post I wrote that I thought one of the reasons that Blacks didn't take a greater part in the Darfur demonstrations was because of self hate. I'm going to have to amend that post some what and I'll do it here.

In general, American citizens don't get involved in international affairs because we are ignorant about what is going on in other countries. And if we do know, in general, we don't care. So, why should Blacks be any different?

Additionally, my coat tail was pulled because the "self hate" line could be used to explain anything wrong in the Black community. I want to make it clear that I don't support that line of reasoning, in general, and I tend to call it b.s. when used by others.

• When your wife asks you if you want to go shopping with her, despite the shakes that you get over the thought, it's best that you suck it up and go. Sometimes, it can even be a fun experience.
• Denying yourself, today, for something better tomorrow, is not easy. However, it does pay off in the long term.
• I have a good life. I am blessed.

I Am Not Alone

I am not alone.

When I look at the "debate" about the state of Black Americans, I tend to see positive and negatives. I also tend to see the positive trends and I speak out about those. When I do, I'm accused of having my head in the sand or being a pollyanna.

But, someone else sees what I see:

I think there are lots of things going on. One, unfortunately with black Americans, there are negative views of blacks as part of American culture. It's deeply ingrained. I really trace a lot of this to the idea of a "black underclass" popularized a great deal over the 1980s in a variety of ways. It had what appeared to be a social- scientific backing, and lots of social scientists ran with it, but the fact of the matter was that it was flawed research.

In 1991 Christopher Jencks, who's at Harvard now, he said, "Let's look at this underclass idea." He looked in several different ways you can define underclass, and there was no there there. Most importantly, the poverty trends were going up and down. There wasn't any sort of significant increase. Assumptions about teenage pregnancy? Teenage pregnancy was going down, and it continued to go down.

What's going on with single-parent households is somewhat complicated, but generally the black birth rate is going down. The other thing is, marriage in 2006 doesn't mean what it meant in 1906 or 1956not for anyone in America today. People aren't marrying the way they used to in the past. Marriage isn't as strong a bond. There's lots of things going on there, but unfortunately the simple explanation or idea that people have is: "Single-parent families cause poverty, there is a relatively high amount of single parents among blacks, so there's a lot of black poverty. " They overestimate the amount of black poverty.

One of the difficulties is that these are all sort of complex issues, and they don't form a single neat sound bite. Yes, things are worse for blacks than for whites, significantly worse, but the overall trend, certainly over the 20th century, is that of improving conditions for blacks and improving conditions for whites.

There's a lot of focus on gaps today, but the gaps haven't closed as rapidly as people would like in part because whites are improving and blacks are improving on the same measure. White poverty is significantly less today than it was in 1960 and black poverty is significantly less. Since they're both going down, the gap remains much larger than it would be if white poverty were fixed. I think many people in their analyses assume that the statistics for whites remain constant over time, but no statistics for whites remain constant over time, so that's another problem in the analyses.

I know I'm not crazy. And it feels good to get some validation.

His work is here.

P6 gets a big hat tip!

Basketball

Gilbert Arenas -- BEAST.
Lebron James -- BEASTier.

Wiz are 2 players away from getting deeper in the playoffs.

That is all.

Why Blacks Seem To Be MIA On The Sudan

There was a demonstration in Washington, D.C. to highlight the ongoing genocide in Sudan. Two blogger comments that I want to highlight are from Booker Rising and Black Informant.

Shay, of Booker Rising, comments:

Yet what struck me was the conspicuous underrepresentation of black folks at the event. No more than 15% of the participants were black...in a city that is at least 40% black. This was downright pitiful. Why are Jewish folks leading the charge on an issue that black folks should be raising hell about here?

In the comment section of that blog entry, Duane of Black Informant comments:

Something I keep saying and I will say it again: Unless there is a "white-against-black" element, you can forget about seeing any large-scale involvement from the black American community. The only other way to get the "folks" involved is by using the "blame America" option--not pointing the finger at the real culprits--Arab Muslims.

I don't fully agree with Duane's comments and we could go back and forth about it. I'd bring up the behavior of Americans, in general, but I'm sure Duane would say we should just stick to Black people.

But be that as it may, I'd like to give my reason for the failure of Blacks to really grab hold of this situation. In a nut shell, the reason is Black self hate.

These are anecdotes, but how many other Black readers have been a part of "conversations" such as this:

• Why do Blacks prefer comedies over dramas?
• Why aren't there more Blacks that like to ski?
• Why don't Blacks visit national parks?
• Why aren't there more Blacks that like "extreme sports"?

Despite the lies and myths put forth by critics of the Black community, Blacks have to be the harshest critics of the Black community than any one else. I don't feed into the "in private" garbage because if it is "in private," the comments are still being said and things are happening to address the problems. But this post isn't about that so let me move on.

If Blacks didn't have a very big dose of self hate, Blacks wouldn't:

• Buy into the Black I.Q. inferiority garbage as some Blacks have done.
• Feel compelled to state that they have no desire to visit Africa or "go back to" Africa. How many times have you heard Italian-Americans, German-Americans, Irish-Americans, etc, say they have no desire to see the country of their ancestors if given the chance?
• Feel the need to state that we are "Americans first." We have fought in every damn war this country has been in.
• Feel the need to "support" O.J.
• Question why Blacks aren't doing more about the Sudan. After all, how many whites cared about the situation in Serbia?

No, in this situation Black Americans don't seem to be getting worked up over this matter and that's to the shame of Black America. But, I think it's because of self hate that was generated during the time of slavery, Jim Crow, and systematic discrimination. Let's face it, Blacks have made comments equal to and worse about Africans than those of Fritz Hollings.

If Blacks didn't have a "healthy dose" of self hate, Blacks would see the basic HUMANITY being lost and would be disturbed. If Blacks had an equally "healthy dose" of self love, there is no way that Jewish people would be more supportive of ending this mess than Black people.