DarkStar Spouts Off

Unfortunately, I'm Not Surprised

Guard's death called a 'hit' for corrupt officers
Court papers cite account by witness to state police
By Greg Garland | Sun reporter
    February 29, 2008

A witness told state police investigating the stabbing death of a corrections officer at a Jessup prison that corrupt guards involved in contraband smuggling "ordered the hit" on Officer David McGuinn, according to papers filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court.

The allegation - the first public suggestion that McGuinn might have been set up by other officers - is contained in a motion filed by defense attorneys for Lamarr Harris, one of two inmates charged with killing McGuinn on July 25, 2006.

The legal motion to produce evidence does not say whether the unidentified witness was a corrections officer, an inmate or someone else. State police homicide investigators interviewed the witness in the weeks after McGuinn was killed.

Frankly, I suspect this is true. This really speaks for itself.

Final Response To Amy Ridenour

The history of this thread is here. Follow the links to catch up if you don't know what's going on.

I really don't want to continue a back and forth, but this is something that I have to correct. Again, I can't see how the following idea:

Finally, DarkStar seems (to me) to be offended by expressions of support for the integration of HBCUs. I remind him that integration has for some generations now been taught in our schools and throughout our society as a positive value at the very center of our civil moral code. As such, no one should be surprised to find members of the integration generations puzzled at continued support for institutions that appear on the surface to reject this value. It would be more surprising if it were not so.

came as a result of anything I wrote.

1. HBCUs are open to white students but white students are reluctant to even apply to the schools. I know HBCUs offer more aid to white students to attend.
2. I wrote that I though some historically white colleges and universities should be closed and the resources and students transfered to the HBCUs. If I were concerned about integration of the HBCUs, I would have never written what I did. For example, I wrote:
   

   Let's close down the University of Maryland Nursing School and re-open the Provident Hospital Nursing School, and have the UMD students "transfer" to Provident.

   The Provident Hospital Nursing School was a Negro Nursing School which my mother attended.
3. I mentioned two HBCUs which are now majority white. I wrote:
   

   Did Massie mention in his letter, and the editors didn't include, the affirmative action programs at HBCUs in his letter? Did Massie mention in his letter, and the editors didn't include, that there are HBCUs like Bluefield State College in West Virginia or Lincoln University in Missouri, which are now mostly white?

   No where did I mention that I thought the schools becoming mostly white is a bad thing.

I have to point this out, with emphasis:

As such, no one should be surprised to find members of the integration generations puzzled at continued support for institutions that appear on the surface to reject this value.

Massie provided no evidence that the HBCUs reject integration. The Thernstroms provided no information that HBCUs reject integration. Amy Ridenour provides no evidence that HBCUs reject integration. At this point, it seems the fact that the schools say they are a HBCU is the only "evidence" that they "reject integration."

My Parents Make Me Sick!

To the person, most likely a child, who visited my blog as a result of this search, just know that your parents love you and they are trying to do what is best for you.

You will understand this later.

Count Me As One Of The Victims

Count me as being one of the victims of this year's late flu season.

I Was Waiting For Them To Speak Up

I was waiting to see if they would speak up:

Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan formally denounced on Thursday the Tennessee Republican Party's use of Barack Obama's full name in a recent news release questioning the Illinois senator's commitment to Israel.

"The RNC rejects these kinds of campaign tactics," Duncan said in a statement. "We believe this election needs to be about the critical issues confronting our nation."

The statement in question, which was released Monday, said the state party is joining a "growing chorus of Americans concerned about the future of the nation of Israel ... if Sen. Barack Hussein Obama is elected president of the United States."

It also included a photograph of Obama from a 2006 trip to Kenya, in which he is dressed in traditional attire.

This is going to be an interesting election. If Obama wins the Democratic nomination, I suspect the 501(c)(4) groups coming out against him are going to be much more dirtier than what the Tennessee GOP put out.

Of course, I thought by now Clinton would have handed Obama his head, so what do I know?

Group's Found Has A Mission to Mentor Young, Black Men

Group's Found Has A Mission to Mentor Young, Black Men

Raleigh, N.C. — Antoine Medley says he's following a call to save young people. Young, black men especially.

The people who are the target of his message might not like everything he has to say, but he's saying it anyway.

From 9 to 5, Medley is a computer guy. He's the one you call when something goes wrong.

He's also a family guy who has made the tough choice to give up family time to create something he believes in – Future Black Men of America Inc.

“Our young boys are really going through some things now by not having direction,” Medley says. That is what led him to decide he must be a leader, must try to shape and change those young men.

More at the link provided.

Silly Season Picture

To me, the picture of Obama in some traditional garb is an example of silliness for the silly season.

He went there and donned the traditional  garb. What's the big deal?

None.

Now, if someone wants to make an example of it and say he has ties to radical Islam, then the person is just LOOKING for something. And, frankly, the Obama camp should say he was being respectful, point out
other politicians doing the same, and maybe even point out Bush dancing with the African dancers not too long ago.

HOWEVER, I've viewed two versions of the picture. One is no big deal, the other is a different matter. I think the Obama camp has a good reason to steaming over the second one.

Go find the pictures yourself, because I won't link to either of them.

Race Hustling Response to Amy Ridenour

The National Center blog has a response to my post, as an addendum from Amy Ridenour. I'm going to respond part by part to make myself clear. Amy writes:

1) DarkStar/Ed Brown refers to Mychal's "race hustling ways." I've been unable to find a definition anywhere for the slang term "race hustling," but I thought it referred to the exploitation of racial divisions for personal profit.

My calling Massie a race hustler is a continuation of using the term against self identified right leaning individuals who I think behave in the same manner as those from the left who they claim are race hustling. As I understand the use, personal profit is not just economics but also getting media attention. And, that IS on intent of Project 21, correct?

2) DarkStar castigates Mychal for not addressing a litany of other, related issues, but letters to major newspapers intended for publication nearly always must be short and succinct to have any hope of being published. Writers can't address everything they might wish to.

She is correct about this point. However, the letter by the president's of the Maryland HBCUs touched upon many topics. Massie touched upon alleged double standards but doesn't even BRIEFLY mention why HBCUs existed in the first place.

Mychal's letter didn't call for closing down historically-black colleges; he exposed the hypocrisy inherent in calling for integration while promoting segregation.

Here is something I guess I didn't explain well. When I wrote, and is quoted by Amy Ridenour:

Here is the bottom line to all of this, besides the disgust I'm feeling towards Massie's letter. Why is it that people like Thernstrom and Massie say close down HBCUs because of their segregated history, instead of saying close down HWCUs, because of THEIR segregated history?

Close down the HWCUs, transfer the money and facilities to the HBCUs, and then let's see what happens.

The intended implication was closing historically white colleges and universities (HWCUs) would further integration of the HBCUs because the white students would be transferred to the HBCUs. So I have to ask why defending HBCUs is promoting segregation? HBCUs didn't discriminate, historically white colleges and universities (HWCUs) discriminated. So, to promote integration, close the HWCUs and transfer the programs, money, facilities, and students to the HBCUs.

Here is some further information that I probably should have written.

State Of The Black Union, 2008

I missed the morning session because D.S. 2.0 is sick and it was a long night. We also made a trip to the urgent care center, a.k.a. a clinic for those with decent medical care, to see about his fever and vomiting. But all is well enough there because it can be addressed with reasonably safe drugs. For God's grace, I'm thankful.

Anyway, the State of the Union afternoon edition is turning out to be a political event supporting Obama or Hillary. I DVR'ed the morning session and will look at it later. I'm recording the second session now, and will watch that later as well. But so far, it seems to be a big waste of time.

I'm going to catch a nap.

Mychal Massie:Race Hustling HBCUs

[ Update 2/24/2008 ] Amy Redenour's National Center Blog responds to this blog entry at this link in an addendum from Amy. In it she writes, among other things that I will respond to in a separate post:

The college presidents and DarkStar attacked Abigail Thernstrom, yet Abigail Thernstrom's essay was jointly written with her husband, Stephan Thernstrom. Isn't the man's input as worthy of note as the female's?

I used Abigail's name only because the presidents only used her name. Amy is right that it is written by Stephan Thernstrom as well. As such, I've updated this entry to go from just referencing Abigail to referencing both of them. That was my bad.

For those of you who are getting here via the National Center Blog, follow this link for my detailed response to Amy Redenour.

---

Mychal Massie of Project 21 is continuing his race hustling ways in this letter to the editor:

There is no debate that historically black institutions have been permitted to escape adherence to Title IV specifically because they are black. What's more, they have escaped penalty while their proponents viciously castigate other institutions for lacking diversity.

It displays hubris of gargantuan proportions when those chastising Ms. Thernstrom insist that the federal government support further violation of Title IV.

Advocating race-based privileges that favor blacks while vehemently opposing nonblack enterprises doing the same is having it both ways.

He is responding to a letter co-written by presidents of Morgan, Coppin, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and Bowie:

Apparently, one such person is U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Abigail Thernstrom, who suggested in a recent Wall Street Journal column that the object of the civil rights movement was to eliminate historically black colleges and universities and move the most talented black students into white institutions rather than providing both black and white students equal opportunities to a quality education at either an HBI or a traditionally white campus. Such mistaken interpretations of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the landmark 1992 Fordice Supreme Court case do a great injustice to historically black institutions and the students they serve. Most unfortunately, they threaten to open old wounds related to race and poverty.

Massie doesn't address their point concerning Thernstrom's "implication".

Quote Of The Year I

"Michael Steele is welcome in my house anytime because he's not Ward Connelly."

Shelia Jackson-Lee, during The State of the Black Union Conference on C-SPAN.

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?

Home Equity Line of Credits Are Now Being Frozen

Home equity lines of credit are being frozen

In one brief phone call, Nancy Corazzi's lender yanked away what was left of the $95,000 home equity line of credit that she and her husband took out five months ago.

The lender informed her that her Howard County home had plummeted in value and the company did not want the risk that she would owe more than the house was worth.

"I got off the phone and I was shaking," said Corazzi, who was using the money to pay preschool tuition for her twins ."I was near tears. We needed this credit line to get us through some tough times."

Check out the ending quote they decided to use.

Corazzi said she was blindsided by what's happened. "I didn't know they could do that. I thought I was too smart to have something like this happen to me."

The bad thing is, this is how I was going to fund upgrades before selling the house. Well, I have other means.

I wonder how this affects people who are using Money Merge Accounts?

SOM students mentor Detroit schoolchildren

SOM students mentor Detroit schoolchildren

Wayne State University School of Medicine students have banded together to launch a cultural and academic academy for middle and high school students of Detroit.   

The Promoting Uplift to Lives of Success and Empowerment (PULSE) Enrichment Academy meets two Saturdays of each month from August to April, bringing Detroit students onto the School of Medicine campus to be taught a variety of cultural and academic subjects by SOM medical students.

The academy, the brainchild of second-year medical students Letacia Sims, Cecelia Calhoun and Dakisha Felder, was established with a Widening the Pipeline Program grant from the School of Medicine’s chapter of the American Medical Student Association. Many of the students volunteering as teachers and tutors are members of the Wayne State University School of Medicine chapter of the Black Medical Association/Student National Medical Association. Ms.Sims, Ms. Calhoun and Ms. Felder are community service chairpersons for the SNMA.    

“We saw a need for this type of programming,” said Ms. Sims, a native of Georgia who wants to practice pediatric medicine. “Kids need to expand their horizons in academics and culture. SOM students need volunteer hours, and the children of Detroit need the help, so it’s mutually beneficial. We get to give back to the community.”

More at the link provided.

Mentoring Program Gives Students Wisdom, Awards

Mentoring Program Gives Students Wisdom, Awards

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO – In Bob Countryman's days, mentoring was a trickle-down affair – brother to brother.

That's all his family could manage for its 13 children when mentoring programs were practically nonexistent, said Countryman, 70, of San Diego.

Today, he is a driving force behind organized mentoring for young African-Americans.

Countryman, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration forensic chemist, served as master of ceremonies for the Links Inc. San Diego chapter's black male high school seniors achievement awards ceremony. It was held at the downtown Marriott Hotel & Marina yesterday.

Nineteen students were honored at the ceremony attended by roughly 400 people.

Links is a national nonprofit organization of black  women, with some chapters overseas.

More at the link provided.

Question About Miami Cubans

I have a question about Miami Cubans.

From what I've read in the news, many Miami Cubans plan to return to Cuba once the reign of Castro ends. For sake of discussion, I assume the reign of Castro includes Raul. I have a very simple question.

Many people complain that the immigrants from Mexico and South America really don't want to integrate into the American culture. Well, can't that be said of the Miami Cubans who want to return?

I'm just asking.

Toys: Home NAS and GigE

Right now I have slightly "advanced" home wireless setup. The Verizon FiOS connection comes into a wireless router, which has an Ethernet connection to another another wireless router that is now just a wireless switch. I have an Ethernet connection from the wireless switch to my development machine and a Linux server that I use for Unix-like development and as the home file server/backup.

Why do I have 2 wireless routers? Well, the FiOS wireless router provides crappy wireless connectivity. My wife's machine always gets a poor connection to the FiOS router, so I set up the previous wireless router as a wireless switch, and all is well.

I want to get network area storage (NAS) to replace the Linux machine for file server/backup functionality, so I can reclaim disk space and upgrade Linux to what I need. Plus I'm fearing the pending death of the drives.

I'm looking at home NAS solutions. My requirements are that they are Window$ compatible, of course, but also Linux compatible. The products have GigE connections, so of course that means that I "have" to upgrade the network behind the FiOS router to GigE, right? Right? RIGHT? ;-) With this setup I can attach a printer to the NAS and have a network printer for the house. Believe it or not, this would get some use.

Maybe that's what the congressional bribe will be used for. ;-)

Project Ready changing attitudes, 1 by 1

Project Ready changing attitudes, 1 by 1

For young black men, dodging gangs, drugs and negative peers and trying to avoid becoming a victim of crime is as much a part of their academic success as hitting the books.

"You've always got to watch your back when you're walking. You never know; maybe those two dudes, or three dudes, you just passed might come back. Like they've seen something they like (such as a clothing item or gold chain) and try to take it," said Marcus Bowens, 17.

Disturbed by the unyielding pattern of high youth violence rates and low graduation rates, the Urban League of Rochester has launched "Project Ready," a program to provide academic mentoring and training in life skills for young black men.

The development program meets twice a week to provide tutoring, train participants on test-taking and public speaking and raise cultural awareness.

More at the link provided.

I'm Sorry Baby, I'm Married

I'm sorry baby, I'm happily married.

But I think you need to refine your search.

The U.S. Government Is Lying About The Economy

Have you ever heard of the economic indicators government website?

No?

Don't worry about it then. It won't be around much longer.

Due to budgetary constraints, the Economic Indicators service       (http://www.economicindicators.gov) will be discontinued effective       March 1, 2008.    

Economic Indicators.gov is brought to you by the Economics and Statistics Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Our mission is to provide timely access to the daily releases of key economic indicators from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Uh huh...
Just like you can't find out the real value of the money supply anymore because the government stopped publishing the data, they do this to hide the true story.

Worrying About Education

D.S. 2.0 is 2 1/2. We already have a college investment account set up and being funded and we have an educational account set up and being funded. I'm in the process of finding a bigger home to move my family to and the process includes looking at the educational system of the areas that I think are desirable. This is despite the fact the plan is to send D.S. 2.0 to private school or to home school him. My thought process is if, for some reason, we are forced to put him into public school, the public school system will be decent enough that we won't have to spend a lot of money to supplement the public school education just to reach a level of education that we, his parents, find acceptable. It's for this reason that I scratched out Prince Georges County, Maryland, even though I know the areas were up scale Black families, who are more likely to have similar values to ours, live. I don't need an all Black neighborhood, but it would be nice to see more Black families, like mine, on a daily basis.

Because of that, I really understand what is going on with the author of this article, The Bourgie Blues:

I didn't have to read Lacy's book to know this. Though my days of heavy lifting as a parent are drawing to a well-earned conclusion (my daughter is a third-year college student and almost emancipated), I have always been fascinated by discussions of how  black parents raise their children. Personal experience and pained conversation with other parents assures me that this issue occupies an enormous volume of middle-class black parents' waking hours.

When my wife and I moved to Atlanta with an infant daughter more than 20 years ago, we made a conscious and deliberate decision to live around other middle-class black people in Dekalb County. We did the same a few years later when we moved to Washington, D.C., choosing to relocate in the same Prince George's County community that Lacy studied. (A note of disclosure: Lacy and I are friends and I assisted her in locating neighbors in our subdivision for her research.)

My wife and I thought it would be best – and easier – to raise a healthy and happy black daughter, if she was constantly exposed to other middle-class black families.

A decade later, we wanted to do the same when we moved to northeast Ohio, but were shocked to discover that Greater Cleveland lacks an upwardly mobile, predominately black middle-class community. So we settled in a largely white suburb with highly regarded schools. It turned out all right, I suppose, but still I wish I'd had another, predominately black and middle-class option.

                       

Yes, I understand. For me, right now, finding a suitable home is paramount, education for D.S. 2.0 is involved in the decision, and then developing multiple income streams for myself so that I can leave sizable legacy wealth for Miss D.S. and D.S. 2.0

Washington County Woman Seeks To Inspire Youths Of Color

Washington County Woman Seeks To Inspire Youths Of Color

As a department assistant in the radiology department at Washington County Hospital, Fara Thompson knows a lot about career opportunities in the medical field. She shares her knowledge and contacts as the Medical Cluster leader for the Hagerstown YMCA's Black Achievers program.

Black Achievers is a youth mentoring program for ages 12 to 18. Its goal is to expose participants to a variety of opportunities in the community, from career and business options to college tours to community service, Thompson said.

"We want to get them out into the community and try to help people, to get them to love who they are, to be proud of being a Black Achiever," Thompson said.

More at the link provided.

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.

Black "Anti-Intellectualism"? Remember This

The next time someone mentions "Black Anti-Intellectualism," remember this article:

First and foremost among the vectors of the new anti-intellectualism is video. The decline of book, newspaper and magazine reading is by now an old story. The drop-off is most pronounced among the young, but it continues to accelerate and afflict Americans of all ages and education levels.

Reading has declined not only among the poorly educated, according to a report last year by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1982, 82 percent of college graduates read novels or poems for pleasure; two decades later, only 67 percent did. And more than 40 percent of Americans under 44 did not read a single book -- fiction or nonfiction -- over the course of a year. The proportion of 17-year-olds who read nothing (unless required to do so for school) more than doubled between 1984 and 2004. This time period, of course, encompasses the rise of personal computers, Web surfing and video games.

...

This is a portrait not only of a different presidency and president but also of a different country and citizenry, one that lacked access to satellite-enhanced Google maps but was far more receptive to learning and complexity than today's public. According to a 2006 survey by National Geographic-Roper, nearly half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 do not think it necessary to know the location of other countries in which important news is being made. More than a third consider it "not at all important" to know a foreign language, and only 14 percent consider it "very important."

That leads us to the third and final factor behind the new American dumbness: not lack of knowledge per se but arrogance about that lack of knowledge. The problem is not just the things we do not know (consider the one in five American adults who, according to the National Science Foundation, thinks the sun revolves around the Earth); it's the alarming number of Americans who have smugly concluded that they do not need to know such things in the first place. Call this anti-rationalism -- a syndrome that is particularly dangerous to our public institutions and discourse. Not knowing a foreign language or the location of an important country is a manifestation of ignorance; denying that such knowledge matters is pure anti-rationalism. The toxic brew of anti-rationalism and ignorance hurts discussions of U.S. public policy on topics from health care to taxation.

 

If you want more of my thoughts on the so-called "Black Anti-Intellectualism", read this link.

The HD DVD War Is Over. WalMart Declares The Winner

The HD format war is over.

Everyone can go out and buy the Blu Ray DVD player of their choice or the game console that supports Blu Ray. We have a winner in the format war, and the knock out hay maker came from WalMart:

February 16, 2008
Taps for HD DVD as Wal-Mart Backs Blu-ray
By MATT RICHTEL and ERIC A. TAUB

SAN FRANCISCO — HD DVD, the beloved format of Toshiba and three Hollywood studios, died Friday after a brief illness. The cause of death was determined to be the decision by Wal-Mart to stock only
high-definition DVDs and players using the Blu-ray format.

There are no funeral plans, but retailers and industry analysts are already writing the obituary for HD DVD.

The announcement by Wal-Mart Stores, the nation's largest retailer of DVDs, that it would stop selling the discs and machines in June when supplies are depleted comes after decisions this week by Best Buy, the largest electronics retailer, to promote Blu-ray as its preferred format and Netflix, the DVD-rental service, to stock only Blu-ray movies, phasing out HD DVD by the end of this year.

Keep it moving folks. No more here to see. It's just another dead technology littering the highway. Move on. No more rubber necking....