Weekend Update- (Memo To Myself)

Although I love my two grandchildren dearly ...and how could I not? I must remind myself that my body is no longer as young and durable as theirs....

This past Saturday, My wife and I took them to Smith Playground and we got on that large sliding board.(.See photos below) While coming down a little faster than I anticipated, my body twisted and I hit my head...I sprained my neck and shoulder as a result.   Being the man that I am...I attempted to tough the pain out...but after much prodding by my wife and two nights of very painful sleep...I went to a doctor...After I finish this post...I'm going to be taking Vicoden (for the pain) and muscle relaxers....to relax those strained muscles..

It has been said that what one loves will kill you.....Indeed!  In this case...almost!

Rest In Peace, Gil Scott Heron

                             Gil Scott Heron                                                              

                                            (April 1, 1949-May 27,2011)

My wife and I had just gotten home from the movies...We had gone to see "Pirates of the Carribean"...Upon getting home...I went on Twitter and Facebook and to my horror, I discovered that Gil Scott Heron, Poet, Singer, Writer, Activist had died... 

It was listening to Gil Scott Heron as a teenager that inspired me to write and critique the political spectrum the way I do today...

Gil Scott-Heron made a name for himself as what we would now call a spoken word soul performer in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He is best known for the critically acclaimed “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” first recorded as a spoken-word piece for his album “Small Talk at 125th and Lenox.”

He also co-wrote and produced more than a dozen albums with jazz and funk legend Brian Jackson. The fusion of jazz, blues and soul in these albums is credited with influencing hip hop and neo soul.

Known as “the godfather of rap,” Gil Scott-Heron’s music was a mix of poetry and politics. His lyrics, full of social and political themes, often is associated with black militant activism.

He performed at the No Nukes concerts, held in 1979 at Madison Square Garden. The concerts were organized by a group called Musicians United for Safe Energy and were protesting the use of nuclear energy following the meltdown at Three Mile Island. The group included singer-songwriters such as Jackson Browne, Graham Nash and Bonnie Raitt. Incredible company indeed.

Gil Scott Heron's song, “We Almost Lost Detroit,” written about a previous accident at a nuclear power plant, is sampled on rapper Kanye West’s single, “The People.”

Gil Scott-Heron’s 2010 album, I’m New Here, was his first new studio release in 16 years. The album’s remix, “We’re New Here,” featuring reworking by English music producer Jamiexx, was released earlier this year.

As a child, Gil Scott-Heron lived with his maternal grandmother (Ironically, just as I did for a little while), Lillie Scott, in Jackson, Tennessee, before moving to New York, aged 13, when she died. The first song on I'm New Here is the ironically titled, "On Coming from a Broken Home", which is an ode to Lillie, according to The Guardian.

Gil Scott-Heron battled an addiction to cocaine and other substances for most of his career and spent time in and out of jail on drug possession charges. He was HIV positive.

The cause of  Gil Scott-Heron's death has not yet been reported at the time I'm writing this. “He’s one of my heroes, an incredible source of energy, power, and truth in the world,” Rapper Mos Def told New York Magazine. I couldn't have put it any better myself.

Weekend Humor

Brian, A recently married sailor is informed by the Navy that he’s going to be stationed a long way from home on a remote island in the South Pacific for 2 years.

A few weeks after he gets there he really starts to miss his new wife,Rashondra so he writes her a letter. "Boo, ," he writes, "it looks like we’re going to be apart for a very long time. Already I’m starting to miss you and we’re constantly surrounded by young, attractive native babes. The temptation’s terrible. I need some kind of hobby to keep my mind off these women." His wife, Rashondra sends him back a harmonica with a note reading, "Why don’t you learn to play this?"

Eventually his tour of duty comes to an end and he rushes back home to his wife. "Baby" he says, "I can’t wait to get you into bed so that we can make passionate hot sweaty monkey love!" But she stops him with a wave of her hand. "First, let’s see how well you play that harmonica!

Birthday Of The Cool One

Miles Dewey Davis III- (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991)

It was my late Uncle Pete who gave me an appreciation for this man...Back when I was a pre-teen and listening to Jackson 5 records...My Uncle used to sit in his room and play this guy's records and sip some gin and talk for hours about how Miles Davis changed the game as far as jazz was concerned..

My Uncle told me that Miles changed Jazz and contemporary music five times and he might have been on to something..Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and jazz fusion.

Many well-known musicians rose to prominence as members of Davis' ensembles, including saxophonists Gerry Mulligan, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, George Coleman, Wayne Shorter, Dave Liebman, Branford Marsalis and Kenny Garrett; trombonist J. J. Johnson; pianists Horace Silver, Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett and Kei Akagi; guitarists John McLaughlin, Pete Cosey, John Scofield and Mike Stern; bassists Paul Chambers, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, Marcus Miller and Darryl Jones; and drummers Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Jimmy Cobb, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, Jack DeJohnette, and Al Foster.

Wow that makes me sweat and just a little breathless just naming all of those folks...When I became an adult...and I mean , well over thirty and my uncle was long dead...I bought some CD's by Miles and sat in the dark and listened to them...Really listened...I heard the genius that my uncle heard back then, that I couldn't appreciate until I was older...

I bought Miles's last CD, "Doo Bop" Which was produced by Easy Mo Bee...who in a few years would produce the first album by another legend...The Notorious B.I.G. Miles was once again fusing Jazz with another genre...Hip Hop....and he did it before Quincy Jones did it with "Back On The Block"..So that makes six times that Miles was on to something....

What a man...what a genius....I celebrate him today on what would have been his 85th birthday!

Keith's Favorite Quotes

THE MAN WHO THINKS HE CAN

If you think you are beaten,you are,


If you think you dare not, you don`t.


If you`d like to win, but think you cant`t,


It`s almost a cinch you won`t.


If you think you`ll lose, you`ve lost,


For out in this world we find,


Success begins with a fellow`s will:


It`s all in the state of mind.


If you think you`re out classed, you are:


You`ve got to think high to rise.


You`ve got to be sure of yourself before


You can ever win a prize.


Life`s battles don`t always go


To the stronger or faster man,


But sooner or later the man who wins,


Is the one who thinks he can.

- Unknown

Freedom Riders

"We did what all oppressed people have done throughout human history," says Hank Thomas, 70, a former Freedom Rider who was a Howard University student at the time. "You try to change things, and you pay a price for it. But you do what you have to do."

What they did was take a stand...Show America that young people could make a change in the world...Much like the young people in nations of the Middle East this past Arab Spring.  I'm waiting for young people in the United States to have an "American Spring"  If they can get their minds off Reality TV and Twitter perhaps!

So all of you youngins...check this out- About Fifty years ago this month, a group of 13 men and women, seven blacks and six whites, left Washington, D.C., on two buses bound for New Orleans.

They never made it. Ten days later, on May 14, 1961, one of the vehicles was attacked by a white mob in Anniston, Ala., the bus set on fire and the riders beaten up. The local police and state troopers made no effort to stop the violence, and the governor of the state, referring to the integrated group of passengers, sarcastically remarked that "you can't guarantee the safety of a fool."So typical of  white southern attitudes in those days....

That same day, the other bus pulled into the terminal in Birmingham, Ala., where it was met by a mob of 1,000 people who proceeded to viciously beat the riders. But as Freedom Riders, a stunning two-hour documentary that was  broadcast by PBS on May 16 at 9 p.m. (EST) demonstrates, these nonviolent activists never gave up -- and, in doing so, managed to effect real change. Take notes youngins...I'm thinking that maybe the young people in Egypt and Tunisia , who after all know more about American history than most Americans probably took notes.

Stanley Nelson, who wrote and directed the PBS documentary said- "[The riders] did not want to live, or their children to live, the way their parents had lived,These kids did not come out of nowhere. Every generation of African Americans had done what they could to move forward." I still have faith that this generation, when called will do the same.

Trained in the nonviolent techniques of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., the group was organized by the Congress of Racial Equality and included Stokely Carmichael and current U.S. Rep. John Lewis. They set out to test whether a Supreme Court decision mandating integrated facilities in interstate bus travel was actually being implemented south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

They had little trouble until they reached Alabama, which, along with Mississippi, was, says Nelson, something of a "no-fly zone" because of the level of violence directed against blacks. And in fact, some factions of the movement felt that what the riders were doing was a bit too confrontational and in-your-face, literally inviting aggressive reaction.

"Nonviolence by its very nature is confrontational," says Charles Person, 68, a former Morehouse College student who was the youngest of the first group of Freedom Riders on that trip. "You don't have a weapon, so you have to make [your opponents] feel uncomfortable."

They were brave enough. Even braver was the fact that after these buses were attacked, the freedom riders eventually found themselves stranded in Birmingham -- where the Greyhound company could not find a driver willing to (or foolish enough,depending on how you look at it.)to continue the trip -- Another wave of young Freedom Riders, based in Nashville, Tenn., and allied with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, decided to finish what the first group had started.

What ensued from that point on was a complicated social and political dance that involved the activists, the governors of Alabama and Mississippi and the Kennedy administration, which, more concerned with international affairs and how the nation was looking in the eyes of the rest of the so called "Free World", reluctantly stepped in when it realized that local authorities weren't going to do a damn thing to protect the Freedom Riders from KKK and their inspired mobs of " Christian White Citizens of the South."

Contrary to popular myth and belief, John and Bobby Kennedy were not then, the great civil rights heroes the way we think of them now , at least not at that time in history...But like a lot of well meaning White Americans...They saw the ugliness of Southern racism on their television screens in their living rooms and it had a huge effect on them.

In the words of one Freedom Rider -"They(The Kennedy Brothers) were dragged kicking and screaming into the conflict, and they changed; they became better persons because of it."

I think all Americans, Black and White became betters persons because of our civil rights movemant and these brave young people who were at the forefront. I was just being born around the time all of this was going down...I thank them for their sacrifice everyday...Because of them...I am!

One Pint!

I'm sure the Tea Party and the holier than thou Obama haters are going to have a field day with this.."See, instead of drinking beer in Ireland, he should be trying to lower these gas prices." or "They got time to drink beer in Ireland ,while our boys are still in Afghanistan.." See, I know they'll say that because everytime the man takes any kind of break...This is the type of rhetoric they toss out...Not to be picking on Former President Bush...but wasn't he on a retreat at Camp David the summer of 2001 when FBI agents and both Israeli intelligence and agents from West Germany were trying to get his attention about 19 young men in the United States who appeared to be suspicious and were all of a sudden interested in aviation lessons??Hmmmmm!

All jokes aside Thousands of well-wishers who waited in pounding rain and hail for as long as three hours, shouted "Welcome home, Mr. President!" and had a pint of Guinness  to greet President Obama in his ancestral home of Moneygall this afternoon.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama set down in the tiny hamlet (pop. 296...I've got more people on my block!) in County Offaly to greet residents of the town where President Obama's great-great-great grandfather was born.(On his mother's side of the family for those of you scratching your head.)

"I"m so nervous I can't talk," said John Donovan, a shopkeeper, funeral director and farmer who owns President Obama's ancestral home . "We have the place spic-and-span" for the president's visit." he said.

Asked if he would serve tea, Donovan told reporters traveling with the President, "I think he's more interested in a pint."

Indeed, Barack and Michelle did lift a pint of Guinness in a Moneygall pub, surrounded by smiling distant kin and other locals.

He's entitled to some r&r...Being the leader of the free world is stressful...The man just put Osama Bin Laden on the spot...outwitted Donald Trump, totally discredited the birthers and has scared the living daylights out of several would be Republican contenders who have suddenly decided not to run and risk embarrassing themselves....I'd say that deserves a beer!  , At least one pint!

The Morning After

If you are reading this...either the scheduled rapture predicted by Harold Camping didn't happen or a whole lot of people (myself included) got left behind...I saw all of the jokes on Facebook and Twitter last night and I must admit, I was responsible for a lot of em myself.

All jokes aside...I really feel sorry for all of the poor misguided souls who sold their houses, ran through their life savings...euthanized their pets and told their unbelieving children (probably teenagers ) that they were going to hell because they didn't buy into this...What will they do Monday morning when the reality sets in that they are still here on Earth and they are broke and homeless? Not only that, but some of them have probably aileanated their families....What will they do, what can they say?

It is these people that I feel sorry for and that I am praying for.What of Camping? What can he say now after being wrong two times and attracting so much attention??
He's 89 years old..It's time for him to do as my grandmother would say- "Go somewhere and sit down" oh and be quiet.

I have to admit...I wondered for a hot minute if he (Camping) might be on to something and yesterday around
5:30 pm...I was a little anxious....I was thinking about Heaven...I was thinking about being left behind too, which in my case might have been more likely...Then by 6:01 pm ,..I sighed relief..went out and bought two hoagies for my wife and I and we had a little post doomsday celebration if you will.

If any good came out of this, it is this...It did get people to thinking and talking about God, about the bible and about getting their souls right...I can't quote this verbatim, but I think it says something in the bible about all things working for the good ....Right now...That's good enough for me!

Peace!

Weekend Humor

A young couple was driving along the highway when a policeman pulled him over. The husband rolled down his window and said to the officer, "Is there a problem, Officer?"

"No problem at all pal, I just observed your safe driving and am pleased to award you a $5,000 Safe Driver Award. Congratulations. What do you think you're going to do with the money?" said the Policeman.

The guy thought for a minute and said, "Well, I guess I'll go get that drivers' license."

His wife,who was sitting in the passenger seat said to the policeman, "Oh, don't pay attention to him - he's a smartass when he's drunk and stoned."

The husband turned to his wife and said, " Melinda, I TOLD you  we wouldn't get far in a stolen car!"

At that moment, there was a knock from the trunk and a muffled voice said, "Would you two stop yappin and get me out of the city...there's a warrant out for my arrest!!! ,Now step on it."

Days Of Wonder, Dreams Asunder!

I consider myself a Christian man, a believer in the divinity of Jesus Christ....Let me state that now before I start....And while God does work in mysterious ways...I wonder if he is planning his biggest mystery for this weekend?  Yeah...Unless you live under a rock, I know you've heard that the world is supposed to come to an end this Saturday...So no Saturday 7 post this week. If this is to be my next to last post in this blog...I promise to leave you laughing with a "Weekend Humor" post tomorrow.


Harold Camping, who runs the Evangelical network Family Radio, is predicting that Saturday afternoon around 6:30 pm of this year will bring about Judgment Day — the time when, according to some, the earth will be destroyed because of mankind's sins and all Christian believers will ascend to heaven.(I wonder does he mean Eastern Daylight time or West Coast time?...It's all confusing to me.)

Apparently Harold Camping believes this will occur this coming Saturday,May 21st on the basis of a mathematical system he created to interpret prophecies hidden in the Bible. While the prediction is pretty eerie in light of the mysterious animal deaths in Arkansas, it's worth noting that this isn't the first time that Camping has predicted the end of the world. He originally used his mathematical system to predict that Sept. 6, 1994, would be Judgment Day. (via NPR) I missed that one...I think I slept through it...Saturday Afternoon around 6:30 pm, est, I probably won't be sleeping...So I'll be awake!!

Truth? I think this is a pack of malarky, but my mother always told me not to tempt fate...So if it's true..I'll have my bible with me, reading scriptures...If it's not..I'm going to the bar!! Noooo, I'm just kdding..but if it's true...To all of my family and friends...I love you all through eternity and it's been real!

I did however have a rather unsettling dream the other night.  I dreamed that my wife and a friend of mine, fellow blogger and Facebook buddy, Shanita Jones walked over to my parents house in West Philadelphia. We all sat down in the living room and had dinner and then my mom packed some food for me to take with me in a paper bag., just like she used to do.. The living room looked the same as it did when I lived there..
I waved goodbye to both of my parents and my wife and I and Shanita walked home!!!

We bid Shanita goodbye as she arrived at her home and my wife and I continued with our bag of food.  When I got to my house...My daughter was there with both of her children and apparently we had an extra room...because both children had a room of their own...

The phone rang...It was my Dad...He was calling to tell me a joke!!!  Then I woke up!!!! It took me a long time to get my head together...First off...My mother has been dead for three years...my father has been dead for nine years....At the time of their deaths they lived in New Jersey....The house I grew up in hasn't been inhabited by my family for close to, if not over twenty years...My daughter is married and lives with her husband and two children about five blocks from me...We have no extra room and my friend, Shanita doesn't live anywhere near me!  Once I got those facts together on the side of my bed...I realized that it was a dream...Welcome to the real world...

But all of this stuff...This dream about dead people...(Haven't dreamed about my parents in about three years!) and all of this end of the world talk kind of got me shook, a little...  If I'm still here...If we all are still here on Sunday...I'll be the first to let you know...Because you know me...Never one to tempt fate, right?

The Week In Sex

Not a good week to be certain people, or maybe it is, depending on how you look at it...We've got a popular
ex-governor/ex-movie star not named Ronald Reagon, A French Diplomat...(Well what can I say, you know how those French are.?)..and a CNN commentator who used to do the news here in Philadelphia , all figuring prominently in the week's news..

This week's news kind of reminds me of those heady days of the Clinton Administration , when sex scandals, His, were the news of the day...This was before 911, before the recession, before two costly wars and the tea party and the birthers got us all in a collective funk. Ahhhh, those were the days...When sex was the only story...oh yeah..and O.J. Even the O.J. Simpson story was laced with lurid inter-racial sex and murder....Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, those were the days, huh?

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted Tuesday that he fathered a child with a member of his household staff 10 years ago. He called his actions inexcusable and apologized to his wife, Maria Shriver, his children and his family. "After leaving the governor's office I told my wife about this event, which occurred over a decade ago," Schwarzenegger told the Los Angeles Times in a statement early Tuesday."I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment among my friends and family. There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused. I have apologized to Maria, my children and my family. I am truly sorry."

"I ask that the media respect my wife and children through this extremely difficult time," the statement concluded. "While I deserve your attention and criticism, my family does not."

In a statement to Fox News.com, Maria Shriver said "This is a painful and heartbreaking time. As a mother, my concern is for the children. I ask for compassion, respect and privacy as my children and I try to rebuild our lives and heal. I will have no further comment."

The shocking revelation was apparently the impetus for Shriver to leave the couple’s home before they announced their separation last week after 25 years of marriage. Arnold and Maria made a public announcement May 9 that they were splitting up, but according to the L.A. Times, Maria Shriver moved out of the family’s Brentwood mansion earlier this year after Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the affair with his staffer.

The unnamed staffer reportedly worked for the family for 20 years and retired in January. The L.A. Times approached the woman, who initially denied that Schwarzenegger was the father, saying instead it was her husband at the time. After Schwarzenegger's confession, she declined to offer further comment, saying she voluntarily left her position with the family “on good terms.” I'll bet she did.  I'll bet that her name and her face will be known before this time next week...It's time to get paid!

This guy...Ohhh man, explain to me how a 62 year old man , butt naked...chases a much younger woman down the hall, allegedly with a glass of wine in one hand...catches her and pulls her into another room where he sexually assaults her and nobody sees or hears a thing? I'm still laughing....Now he says he was set up..Part of a...Get this..Honey trap! I've got other names for it..

The weekend arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn sent shockwaves through the financial world and upended French presidential politics, but it also quickly gave rise to theories about whether the International Monetary Fund chief had been set up by rivals.

Prior to his imprisonment at Riker's Island on charges of attempted rape, the globetrotting Strauss-Kahn wielded considerable power. As head of the monetary fund — which provides emergency loans to countries in severe distress and monitors global financial stability — Strauss-Kahn was a frequent guest of lawmakers and leaders of the banking industry.

And as a prominent member of France's Socialist party, he was widely considered to be one of the strongest potential challengers next year to President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The financial titan — who carries a reputation for womanizing — became an immediate talking point: For some, the story represented a sad fall from grace; others spoke of humiliation for France; but, for another group, it smacked of a set-up.

''Yes, I love women...so what?'So What? I love women too..but I don't rape them...I don't assume that they just can't resist me.. In a strange twist, Strauss-Kahn himself lit the fuse for theorists and supporters just two weeks ago. During an interview with French newspaper Liberation, the IMF chief predicted that his enemies could use his proclivity for promiscuity against him if he chose to run for president of France.

When asked what challenges he faced in a possible bid, Strauss-Kahn replied, "The money, women and my Jewishness." Is this why he's being reffered to as France's Bill Clinton? I'm just asking.

"Yes, I love women ... so what? For years we talk about giant pictures of orgies," he told Liberation Magazine "But I've never seen anything out ... Let's show them!" Is this guy for real?

The IMF chief went on to admit that he could see himself being set up because of his affinity for women. According to a translation done by British newspaper The Guardian, Strauss-Kahn goes on to admit that he could see himself becoming the victim of a honey trap: " (There's that term again)a woman raped in a car park and who's been promised 500,000 or a million euros to invent such a story... ." Yeah...uh huh! If you know people are out to get you and you're aware of your weakness, Why walk into the trap willingly??

"It is totally hallucinatory." (Yes,just like this conspiracy theory.) Strauss-Kahn's supporters took to his defense almost immediately after his arrest. “I am convinced it is an international conspiracy,” Michelle Sabban, senior councilor for the greater Paris region, told the Telegraph.

"It's the IMF they wanted to decapitate," she said. "It's not like him. Everyone knows that his weakness is seduction, women. That's how they got him." No..That's not how they got him...His over active libido is what got him...Possibly alcohol too...Did his enemies use the vulcan mind meld to get him to run down the hall naked after some young maid?

The last story is the only one here that is not scandalous...Long time CNN commentator , former Philadelphia newsman and native Chicagoan, Don Lemon came out of the closet yesterday and announced that he is Gay. While the news is surprising...I am not shocked....I also don't care.  Don Lemon is a pretty decent guy..I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times when he worked here in Philadelphia.. I saw him out at certain events that I happened to be attending...He appeared to be a nice enough guy.

He was a pretty good news anchor too...although NBC-10 used to always have him out doing the weather during a storm.  I used to feel sorry for him...The wind would be blowing, torrid rains would be pouring, snow flying all over the place and there he'd be...Poor Don Lemon...Soldiering on...I suppose that's why he left Philadelphia and headed south to Atlanta's warmer climate and CNN's bigger bucks! Good for you brother...and good for you for being courageous enough to come out...Even though it's nobody's business.

So there it is..That's the week in sex...Have you had your protein today?

System Disconnect!

Sometime after midnight, this past Wednesday or it could have been Thursday something peculiar happened.
Every post I wrote for this blog, my blog, "Escapades" and my blog -"Good Foodie" just up and vanished! Poof!  Yeah...I know I wasn't imagining it!

I hope you read my post 'Extending The Olive Branch", Thursday, May 12th 2011...because if you didn't...It's lost forever...Gone!  My "Weekend Humor" post and my "Saturday 7" post vanished too, although they have both been restored.  In "Escapades" , the conclusion to my recent story about a guitarist and a singer..."Play To You Strengths" also vanished... In "Good Foodie" ,my recipe for Beef Stroganoff, which yall probably didn't want to make anyway vanished as well...It too has been restored....

Needless to say, I was very upset....I put in a lot of good time and work to create these posts (for free, I know) and it hurts to think that because of some system malfunction or virus or whatever they could all just disappear into "bloggerland" as my fellow blogger and Philadelphian, The Field Negro put it! (Plus it messes with my incredible vanity and huge ego as well!)

I sent the good people of Google, the parent company that owns "Blogger" a very strongly worded e-mail(yeah,I'll bet that scared them!) in which I voiced my extreme displeasure and threatened to take all three of my blogs either to Wordpress or a paid site. The people at Google know that I was just blowing off steam...I don't particularly care for Wordpress and being the cheapskate that I am, I am not about to pay for anything...

Google replied by explaining to me what had happened...They wrote to me- "Dear Keith, we are sooooo sorry, see, what had happened was ,We experienced some type of virus that corrupted our system..In order to combat it we had to take down our system and put it in a "safe" mode. We think that this was some type of Al Queda plot to disrupt our country's great past time of surfing the internet.We are very sorry that users are unable to publish to Blogger right now. We have rolled back the maintenance release from last night and as a result, posts and comments from all users made after 7:37 am PDT on May 11, 2011 have been removed. Again, we apologize that this happened and our engineers are working hard to return Blogger to normal and restore your posts and comments. We will post a report once this work is complete."

I still was not satisfied and I sent another strongly worded e-mail to google. What I couldn't know is that some of you, who like me are also bloggers ,were sending your strongly worded e-mails to google too..This prompted this response some 24 hours later.."Nearly all posts since Wednesday (5/11) are restored, and we're now bringing back comments from last couple days. They should be back this weekend or sooner."

Well, Like I said...All of my posts on all of my blogs are back, except for one.....Any comments you guys left are unfortunately gone.....It was only one or two....but hey, that one or two is all I get on a good day.. I am sorry about any confusion that any of you, my loyal readers have had- Oh who am I kidding...It's not like a lot of you even noticed..unless like I say...you are bloggers too...I do have a few people who read my blog who aren't bloggers and don't have a google account...This was really an explanation for you guys...

As for the brilliant folks at Google- I'm watching you!!!! I certainly hope that this doesn't happen again anytime soon.

Saturday 7 (Seven things a woman should never say to a man)

1."That's It? Awww come on!"

2."I really hate your mom!"

3.''You're alright..but you aint the best I've been with.."

4."Last night while we were making love, I thought about my ex."

5."I read your text messages while you were in the shower."

6."Your friend is really hot!"

7. ''Shame I didn't meet him first."

OUCH!

Weekend Humor

A 6 year old  girl and her 4 year old brother are upstairs in their bedroom. "You know what?" says the 6 year old girl "I think it's about time we started cussin." Her 4 year brother  nods his head in approval. The 6 year old girl continues, "When we go downstairs for breakfast, I'm gonna say something with hell  in it and you say something with ass." Her 4 year old brother agrees with enthusiasm.

When the mother walks into the kitchen and asks the 6 year old girl what she wants for breakfast, She replies, "Aww hell, Mom.. I guess I'll have some Cheerios."

WHACK!

She flies out of her chair, tumbles across the kitchen floor, gets up, and runs upstairs crying her eyes out, with her mother in hot pursuit, slapping her rear end with every step. Her Mom locks her in her room and shouts, "You can stay there until I let you out! cussin like you aint got good sense , not in my house!"

She then comes back downstairs, looks at her 4 year old  son and asks  him with a stern voice, "And what do YOU want for breakfast, young man?"

"I don't know," he blubbers, "but you can bet your fat ass it won't be Cheerios."

Extending The Olive Branch

They are calling this spring the "Arab Spring" We have seen peaceful pro-democracy revolutions in Egpyt and a few other Arab states and a not so peaceful uprising in Libya...Amongst these Arab States, the one thing I notice that is missing is the fanatical muslim fundamentalism...If this trend is indeed a new trend, then the steps President Obama is said to be making now are right in tune with this trend.

Amid searing change in the Middle East and North Africa, President Barack Obama will address U.S. policy toward the region in a speech that could be delivered as early as next week.



Aides said President Obama's emphasis would be regional and political, highlighting the democratic values that have linked the popular uprisings that started in Tunisia and Egypt and quickly spread throughout the region that I spoke about or alluded to in my first paragraph. President Obama is not expected to focus on religion, as he did in his address to the Muslim world during a 2009 trip to Cairo.

President Obama had originally planned to deliver the speech during the first week of May, but it was pushed back because of the raid in Pakistan that led to the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. A new date has not been officially set, but the White House said that President Obama could speak before he leaves for a nearly weeklong trip to Europe next weekend. The speech would be in this country, not overseas.



Osama Bin Laden's death has given the White House an opportunity to cast al-Qaida as a movement past its prime, as young people throughout the Middle East and North Africa turn to peaceful political protest, not terrorism, to vent their grievances.

"It's an interesting coincidence of timing — that he is killed at the same time that you have a model emerging in the region of change that is completely the opposite of bin Laden's model," Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser at the White House, told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the planned speech on Tuesday.



President Obama plans to make the case that Osama bin Laden represented a failed approach of the past while populist movements brewing in the Middle East and North Africa represent the future, U.S. officials told the Journal.



The United States has struggled to find a consistent approach to the political uprisings that have swept through the region. While President Obama publicly called for longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak to step down from power, he has not challenged the legitimacy of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose forces are leading a bloody crackdown against political protesters.



The White House says there are no plans for military action to stop that crackdown, despite the U.S., along with European and Arab allies, using military power to try to stop government-backed forces from attacking civilians in Strongman Moammar Gadhafi's Libya. I always wanted to write that..."Strongman" I used to see it written about dictators like Idi Amin back in the 80's and I always wondered why Dictators were referred to as "Strongmen" but I digress...



The White House has said that each country is unique and therefore the U.S. response must be as well. But President Obama's aides, and the State Department in particular, have grown anxious for the president to publicly outline his thoughts and policies on the Arab awakening in a comprehensive way.



Though details of the speech are still being decided, the president is expected to highlight the underlying values that have united political movements throughout the region, including the yearning for more freedom and better standards of living.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also hinted at some of the themes President Obama said he would touch on during the speech, noting that the U.S. is focused on partnerships not just with governments in the Middle East and North Africa, but also the peoples of the region.



"We start from the understanding that America's core interests and values have not changed, including our commitment to promote human rights, resolve longstanding conflicts, counter Iran's threats, and defeat al-Qaida and its extremist allies," she said during a speech in Washington last month.



A far cry from the Cowboy rhetoric of the last administration...Very refreshing too!

President Obama's agenda next week will already be heavily focused on the Middle East, with Jordan's King Abdullah and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu making separate visits to the White House.



President Obama is not expected to detail a fresh path for peace between Israel and the Palestinians in his speech, although he is likely to discuss the conflict in the context of the wider region and note that the ongoing changes elsewhere in the Middle East could actually help the peace process.



Again I say, a refreshing difference from what we had been hearing for eight years amidst a world of increasing tensions...I don't know about you, but for the first time in a long time...probably simce September 11, 2001...I feel kind of optimistic about this country's foreign policy!

Memphis ?

My Family is having it's bi-annual family reunion in Memphis this coming July. No, I don't have any relatives in Memphis that I know of...No, I've never been there before...and No, I had nothing to do with the planning or logistics of this family reunion...but...This is where we have decided to meet and fellowship this coming July.

I'm planning to go to Memphis just the same.  My only frames of reference is that Elvis lived there and it is the home of Graceland, which I guiltily confess...I want to see.  (I want to see Michael Jackson's Neverland too. Don't judge me! The "Civil Rights Museum" ,formerly, the Hotel Lorainne where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered is also there. Yes...I want to see that too.

I saw the independent movie -"Insecure" ,which featured my frat brother, radio personality...Nephew Tommy, from the Steve Harvey Morning show ,which was shot on location in Memphis..Oh and last but not least...I've become a fan of the surprising Memphis Grizzlies basketball team..So there are my frames of reference. I plan to take a train to Memphis this summer. I'm not taking a plane...We just killed Bin Laden...Nobody ever tried to hijack a train to Cuba or run a train into a building.

Memphis is starting to look a lot like New Orleans...They've been having flood problems or near flood problems..The Mississippi River began cresting and hit nearly 48 feet early yesterday, falling short of a record but wreaking havoc across Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi as tributaries and creeks swollen from the flooded waterway spilled over their banks into residential, business and farming areas.

At 7 a.m. Central time Tuesday the water level reached 47.87 feet as the coffee-colored river cut through Memphis, swallowing much of the riverfront recreation area. The tourist riverboat Capt. John T. Lozier, usually about 30 feet from the riverside street, bobbed just a few feet from where onlookers gathered to take pictures and gape at the yawning river. The cobblestone walkway that runs parallel to the street was under water, as were no-parking signs, trash cans, the plank leading to the riverboat, and large swaths of Mud Island, just off the coast of downtown.

Only a small mound of grass, with state, federal and local flags flying from their poles, was visible from the downtown area Tuesday as the bike paths, walkways and long grassy stretches of the recreational area remained submerged. What might I and my family be getting ourselves into?

There was no danger to Memphis' major tourist draws, such as Graceland, which lies far beyond the water's reach, and much of the city appeared normal. Levees built to prevent massive flooding were holding, according to the Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday. Shelby County and four others were declared disaster areas by President Obama late Monday. The designation means that they'll be eligible for federal disaster aid, which local officials say is much-needed.

Cleanup was expected to be massive, and there were fears that farmland and cities further south could yet be devastated. Inmates in Louisiana's largest prison were taken to higher ground, and farmers were building homemade levees to protect their crops. Engineers diverted water into Lake Pontchartrain to ease the pressure on levees around New Orleans, where levee failures after Hurricane Katrina virtually drowned the city.

The flooding is the result of heavy rains recently and unusually heavy snow over the winter further north that began melting and adding to the already swollen Mississippi.
There was no danger to Memphis' major tourist draws, such as Graceland, which lies far beyond the water's reach, and much of the city appeared normal. Levees built to prevent massive flooding were holding, according to the Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday. Shelby County and four others were declared disaster areas by President Obama late Monday. The designation means that they'll be eligible for federal disaster aid, which local officials say is much-needed.

Cleanup was expected to be massive, and there were fears that farmland and cities further south could yet be devastated. Inmates in Louisiana's largest prison were taken to higher ground, and farmers were building homemade levees to protect their crops. Engineers diverted water into Lake Pontchartrain to ease the pressure on levees around New Orleans, where levee failures after Hurricane Katrina virtually drowned the city.The flooding is the result of heavy rains recently and unusually heavy snow over the winter further north that began melting and adding to the already swollen Mississippi.



It was unclear if the water would rise further. At a morning news briefing, Bob Nations, director of the Shelby County Office of Preparedness in Memphis, said officials were "fairly confident" that the river had reached its peak in the city but he said the cresting was "an 'ing' thing" and that the water could go higher. "Right now we're below record, thank goodness," he said, alluding to the 1937 floods that occurred when the Mississippi crested at 48.7 feet. "But I say that with a lot of caution."

Mr.Nations said it could be several days before water levels go down. "People have to understand that we consider this still a bit unpredictable but definitely a dangerous environment. It's not the time for citizens to necessarily start cleaning up. It's just a time for great patience."

Dangers included power lines submerged in flood waters, a situation that caused officials to cut power to about 1,500 people in Memphis to prevent electrocution. "What it all boils down to … is that's a very dangerous situation," said Callen Hays, a crisis management coordinator at Memphis' Light, Gas and Water Division. Hays compared the potential catastrophe to being in a bathtub and having someone "throw a toaster into it."

Cain also warned that the floods probably had sent wildlife, ranging from deer to some dangerous snakes, inland, making it more important for the hundreds of evacuees from low-lying areas to be cautious when they return home. It was unclear when that might be, though. In Dyer County, one of the hardest-hit areas, James Medling, director of emergency management, said the river would need to drop eight or nine feet before things returned to normal. "It's going to be a while yet," he said.

There was no danger to Memphis' major tourist draws, such as Graceland, which lies far beyond the water's reach, and much of the city appeared normal. Levees built to prevent massive flooding were holding, according to the Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday. Shelby County and four others were declared disaster areas by President Obama late Monday. The designation means that they'll be eligible for federal disaster aid, which local officials say is much-needed.

Cleanup was expected to be massive, and there were fears that farmland and cities further south could yet be devastated. Inmates in Louisiana's largest prison were taken to higher ground, and farmers were building homemade levees to protect their crops. Engineers diverted water into Lake Pontchartrain to ease the pressure on levees around New Orleans, where levee failures after Hurricane Katrina virtually drowned the city.

The flooding is the result of heavy rains recently and unusually heavy snow over the winter further north that began melting and adding to the already swollen Mississippi.

Okay...So I'm still going to take a chance...It's May..and barring anymore rain...Memphis should be as dry as a bone by July ,when I take the train there...right? right?....Stay tuned!