Saturday, May 31, 2014
Friday, May 30, 2014
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
R.I.P. Maya Angelou
I wasn't going to write anything today, but I just got the news that Poet-Civil Rights Activist,Maya Angelou has transitioned out of this life...
I remember reading her book-"I know why the Caged Bird Sings" when I was in the ninth grade....It was one of the books that made me want to express myself through the written word..
Her death comes less than a week after Ms Angelou announced she would not attend the 2014 MLB Beacon Awards Luncheon, where she was to be honored, citing "health reasons." Last month, she also canceled an event in Fayetteville, Arkansas, because she was recovering from an "unexpected ailment" that left her hospitalized.
"The mayor is very saddened to hear the loss of a woman of such renowned phenomenal status as Dr. Angelou. Our prayers are with her family, her staff and all the people she has worked with," Linda Jackson-Barnes, assistant to Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines, said.
Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, under the name Marguerite Annie Johnson. She grew up to become a singer, dancer, actress, writer and Hollywood's first female black director.
A Rennasaince Woman and one of my heroes...We are losing too many of my heores...and God knows , this generation needs them!
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
A Perfectly Polite, Kind and Wonderful Human Being
You know...One of these things happens every year now! A mass murder....You had the Batman Shooter, You had Sandy Hook and now you have this, the Santa Barbara Mass Killing , by a young man who was angry that he was a 22 year old virgin who hadn't kissed a girl yet...
Ohhhh the problems that some people have.....
The family of a man they believe went on a shooting rampage near a Santa Barbara, California, university called police several weeks ago after being alarmed by YouTube videos “regarding suicide and the killing of people,” a lawyer said Saturday.
Police interviewed Elliot Rodger and
found him to be a “perfectly polite, kind and wonderful human,” family
attorney Alan Shifman said.
Shifman added that police did not find a
history of guns, but did say Rodger “didn't have a lot of friends,” had
trouble making friends and didn't have any girlfriends.
Shifman is the attorney for Peter Rodger,
who was one of the assistant directors on “The Hunger Games.” and the father of the shooter.
Police said a gunman driving a BMW near
the university campus went on a rampage that left seven people dead,
including himself. Authorities described the tragedy as “obviously
the work of a mad man.”
Seven people remain hospitalized with
gunshot wounds or other injuries, including one who has undergone
surgery, following the shooting spree Friday night in the beachside
community of Isla Vista, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said
The gunman got into two gun battles before
crashing his black BMW into a parked car. Deputies found the lone
suspect dead with a gunshot wound to the head, but it wasn't immediately
clear whether he was killed by gunfire or if he committed suicide,
Brown said.
A semi-automatic handgun was recovered
from the scene near the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Investigators know the gunman's name, but Brown said he couldn't release
it pending notification of relatives.
Describing the atrocity as “premeditated
mass murder,” Brown said, authorities were analyzing a disturbing
YouTube video posted that shows a young man describing plans to shoot
women that appears to be connected to the attack.
Monday, May 26, 2014
Friday, May 23, 2014
Weekend Humor
"What do I do if she's ugly?" says Tyrell, "I'll be stuck with her all night."
"Don't worry." Darnell says. "Just go up to her door and meet her first. If you like what you see, then everything goes as planned. If you don't, just shout Aaauuuggghhh! and fake an asthma attack."
So that night, Tyrell knocks at Shirleys door, and when she comes out he is awe-struck at how beautiful and sexy she is. Tyrell about to speak when Shirley suddenly shouts, "Aaauuuggghhh!"
Have a Super Groovy Holiday weekend Everybody!
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
That Voting Thing Again
He's not important and he has stepped down....And thankfully, last ditch racists like him are on their way out....
What is more important is keeping people like him and slicker more subtle and younger people like him with the same attitudes and policies from getting into office.
The only way to do that is to vote...
I hope all of you reading this voted yesterday....
The Supreme Court removed a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that required states with a history of voter discrimination get federal approval before making voting changes like moving polling places or redistricting.
Within months of the ruling, some states immediately enacted potentially discriminatory laws including Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, South Dakota, Iowa, and Indiana.
The good news is that we have the chance to fix it now. Congress can pass a new set of protections that work together to guarantee our right to vote - it's called the Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2014.
Supported by a bipartisan group of lawmakers this bil will protect critical civil rights. This bill is simple, it will require any state with five violations of federal voting rights law in the last 15 years to receive pre-clearance for any election changes.
That means states with a history of discrimination that want to redistrict, change election procedures close to an election, or move polling places, must have these changes reviewed.
It's common sense. Voter discrimination is a real problem. (Same as the imaginary voter fraud that so many right wingers want to crow about!)
When the Voting Rights Act was reauthorized in 2006, Congress held over 20 hearings and amassed a record of 15,000 pages documenting widespread evidence of voting discrimination.
Ask Congress to pass this bipartisan legislation — the Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2014.
It's a shame that in 2014..We still have to have this discussion as though it's 1964...It's a shame....but every single racist has unfortunately, not died yet...and a few are being born and groomed...
The only way to protect yourself against them making policy is to vote them out of office or better yet..Keep them from getting there in the first place.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Monday, May 19, 2014
Friday, May 16, 2014
Weekend Humor
The bartender approaches and tells the cowboy, "You know, a mug goes flat after I draw it...It would taste a heck of a lot better if you bought one at a time."
The cowboy replies to the bartender...
''Well you see...I have two brothers...One is in Arizona,the other is in Colorado, When we all left our home in Texas, we promised that we'd drink this way to remember the days when we drank together...So I'm drinking one beer for each of my brothers and one for each of my brothers and one for myself."
The bartender admits that that is a nice custom and leaves it there...
The cowboy becomes a regular in the bar and always drinks the same way...He orders three mugs of beer and drinks them in turn.
One night he comes in and orders only two mugs .All of the regulars take notice and fall silent...When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says -"I don't want to intrude on your grief fella ,but I wanted to just offer my condolences on your loss."
The cowboy looks kind of puzzled for a moment...
"My loss?" he says.
Then a light goes on in his head and he laughs...
"Ohhhhhhh nahhh man, everybody is just fine, all my brothers are just fine.." he said. "It's just that me and my wife just joined the Baptist Church and I had to cut back on my drinking............It hasn't affected my brothers though!
EVERYBODY HAVE A SUPER GROOVY WEEKEND!
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Michael Jackson's Xscape
Listening and grooving to Michael Jackson's latest release- "Xscape" on the way to work....While his first posthumous release-'Michael" was a bit of a disapointment...
This music here is a glimpse of the Micheal Jackson album I was waiting for after "Thriller" and" Bad" that he failed to deliver...
Except for "Love Never Felt so Good" which was recorded in 1983...Most of these songs here were recorded in between "Bad" and "Dangerous"....
Stand out songs are "Chicago" , "Loving You", "Place With No Name" and "Do you know where your children are?" (Wish he could have chosen a different name for that song, but it rocks just the same..)
Good stuff here.... I said back in 2009, before his untimely death that MJ had one more great album like "Thriller" in him...and here is a glimpse of what might have been.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
A Tale of Jay and Bee and Solonge
Of course...Everybody was talking about that video! Come on...You been living under a rock?? You know, the one where Beyonce's baby sister, Solonge attacked Jay-Z, Beyonce's husband on the elevator....You must have seen it...
Yes...That video.... It even made the national news yesterday and CNN.
Since there is no audio and it actually happened a week ago...Nobody knows what this was all about or what sparked Solonge's rage at her brother in law..Though there was much speculation...Jay Z allegedly
said something to her that she took the wrong way...She allegedly was drunk and high and flew off the handle, there were allegations of her being angry at Jay-Z for cheating on her sister, et al....
Truth is...We don't know....And because the Carters are notoriously private...We will never really know and that's okay with me...We all have our family drama and our crazy moments... I am just amused how the Twitter and Facebook folks just make up scenarios and it gets passed around as truth when there is no audio and the only people other than the Carters who REALLY know what this was about will probably never tell anybody..Then again...Everybody has their price!!
Amazing how little it takes to distract the average American!
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Friday, May 9, 2014
Weekend Humor
A woman called her boyfriend and said, "Please come over here and help me. I have a killer jigsaw puzzle, and I can't figure it out or how to get it started."
Her boyfriend asked, "What is it supposed to be when it's finished?"
The woman said, "According to the picture on the box, it's a tiger."
Her boyfriend decided to go over and help with the puzzle.
She let him in and showed him where she had the puzzle spread all over the table. He studied the pieces for a moment, looked at the box, then turned to her and said,
"First of all, no matter what we do, we're not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a tiger."
He took her hand and said, "Second, I want you to relax. Let's have a nice cup of hot chocolate and then............," he sighed, ..... "Let's put all of these frosted flakes back into the box."
Have a Groovy weekend everybody!
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
What I've Learned
1.Sometimes Humanity doesn't fail to dissapoint..
2.Never Drop Names
3.We really don't want life to be nice and neat...We say we do, but we really don't
4.I always wanted to be known...My grandfather was known by almost everybody in West Philadelphia...Or at least I thought so when I was a child and I would go for walks with him...Everywhere we went it was "Heyy Slim"..."Hi Mr. Martin." So my goal was to be well known....and now ,surprise,surprise...I'm known across the nation!
5.If someone is really your friend....You won't have to work hard to stay friends...
6.Stress, Anger and Pain take a toll on your face...I try not to indulge in any of those...
7.Laughter makes you look young....I laugh a lot!
8.When I was growing up, the American Dream was to work hard, be successful, retire with enough money to go traveling around the world afterwords...I don't know if I'll ever be that guy....
9.You gain no wisdom from always trying to impose your will on other people.
10.Respect involves accepting people for what they are without revising or marginalizing or objectifying them — or even elevating them.
PEACE!
Monday, May 5, 2014
Rescue Our Daughters
It has been two weeks since this actually happened....I am as guilty as everybody else...Focusing on Disgraced Los Angelas Clippers owner ,Donald Sterling and that other old racist bastard, Bundy.....While this atrocity was going on halfway around the world...
It's now been two weeks since 234 girls from a Nigerian boarding school were kidnapped by armed terrorists. With every passing minute, it's getting harder and harder for the Nigerian military to find these girls and bring them back home.
On April 16 hundreds of schoolgirls between 16 and 18 years old disappeared from the town of Chibok, Nigeria. At the time, it was believed that the terrorist group Boko Haram drove the girls into Sambisa Forest, a known criminal stronghold. But new reports indicate that the missing girls may have been transported further out than expected, even outside the country.
"Some of them have been taken across Lake Chad and some have been ferried across the border into parts of Cameroon," said Pogo Bitrus, a Chibok community leader. Locals in the area reported that many of the girls had been married off to the insurgents in mass ceremonies, while others were sold off as cooks or sex slaves. "It's a medieval kind of slavery," Bitrus added.
For the family and friends of these missing girls, this news is another sign of the continuing incompetency of the Nigerian military, which has not been able to rescue a single hostage.
From the very beginning, the rescue operation has been riddled with errors. First, the Nigerian government could not even provide an accurate number for the missing girls; the school and the girls' families had to work together to figure out how many had been kidnapped. Then the military announced that it had rescued all but eight of the girls, a claim which it immediately retracted the next day. A few dozen girls have been able to escape, but without help from the government.
The situation has become so frustrating that family members and town residents have taken to riding out to Sambisa on their motorcycles, combing through the forest to find a trace of the missing students. "It's alarming that more than a week after these girls were abducted, there are not any concrete steps to get them back," said Human Rights Watch's Nigeria researcher Mausi Segun.
Why you say is this important? Glad you asked...Here is why Critics
of the rescue operation say that this is not an isolated incident, and had the government been able to fight Boko Haram more effectively, this all could have been avoided.
The insurgent group, whose name means "western education is forbidden," has raided schools in the past, but never to this extent. In the past few months, the al-Qaeda affiliate has become more brazen: On the same day as the girls' kidnapping, Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed 75 in Abuja.
Since last year, Nigeria has been under a state of emergency, which has given the government permission to engage in illegal searches, torture and extrajudicial killings. But analysts believe that instead of stamping out violence, Nigeria's martial law may have emboldened Boko Haram to step up its activity. In any case, it's become unfortunately clear that this rescue operation is far from effective — and the window of opportunity to find these girls is closing very quickly.
I just have to shake my head at another example of man's intolerance and inhumanity towards man.
Friday, May 2, 2014
Thursday, May 1, 2014
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KEEPING THE FAITH: RANDOM PRAYERS "ON THE DOWNLOAD"
"Mommy, can I go to Timmy's blog and play?"
